Suite Spot: A Hotel Marketing Podcast

By Travel Media Group & Ryan Embree

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November 06, 2024 151 – 5 Key Takeaways from the 2024 Hospitality Show

In this special episode, Suite Spot Host, Ryan Embree covers 5 key takeaways from the 2024 The Hospitality Show that took place in San Antonio, Texas.
The industry event was one-of-a-kind and featured incredible panelists, vendors, guest speakers, interviews, and much more from the hospitality industry.

Tune in now to get the latest details from the event and why you should be excited for next year!
Episode Transcript
Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio.
Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Ryan Embree here with the Suite Spot. Thank you so much for joining me today. Today is episode 151. Just want a moment to recognize 151 episodes. Wanna thank our audience, uh, for being with us, uh, whether this is your first episode or 151, thank you so much for all the support and we are so excited to bring you another incredible episode. This, as you can see from the title The Hospitality Show, are five key takeaways. We just returned from San Antonio. In fact, again, just like last year’s takeaway episode, I haven’t even had the opportunity to do my laundry to get in my normal Travel Media Group attire. So, I was just so wanting to get these takeaways to you from the episode. First off, an absolutely incredible event. The Hospitality Show, this is the second annual one put on. The first one was last year. Inaugural show was last year in Las Vegas. This in San Antonio. Want to thank the city of San Antonio for hosting to our A HLA Questex. They put on an incredible show to all the sponsors. If you have not already looked into or are thinking about attending the hospitality show, it is a must attend event. So many interviews, so many insights, content. They had some incredible keynotes, guest speakers, so many cool activities. And of course, hospitality. You have to be able to throw a party and host people, right? And they absolutely nailed it in San Antonio, celebrating Dia de DEOs. Just did a fantastic job. So let’s get into some of these takeaways that I got, and it’s gonna start with one of the most prevalent topics and patterns, ai, in fact, in these top five takeaways, two of my key takeaways have to do with ai. The first is, from a hotelier’s perspective, seems to be this just battle right now of where AI is best utilized with our industry. And there’s this push and pull, whether it’s for efficiency, reducing costs, which we know right now is really, really hurting a lot of hotels across the nation, whether it’s rising construction costs, operational costs, staffing and wages continue to grow, uh, and get more costly. So is it for efficiency that it’s best use? Or is it to drive revenue? Right? Top line revenue. And, and there was kind of this, this little just debate of, of what is AI best used for right now? And, uh, you know, there was a, a incredible panel on ai. There were several of them, but the one I had the pleasure, uh, there was one guest speaker who kind of talked through the stages of AI and where we are and actually broke it down into three stages. And we’re on the precipice of, of the third right now. So go through the first one, which was predictive, right? That’s your chat, GPT just kind of giving us maybe, hey, write me an email answering sort of questions for you. Uh, and then we kind of slowly moved into this co-pilot. You know, you see a lot of these big companies kind of roll out this co-pilot that was really supposed to do actions for you. And now the panelists has had kind of challenged that were into this third, which is assistive and, uh, autonomous and agent kind of stage of ai where this would be kind of the human touch mix with ai. And I think he’s, he’s definitely onto something as far as, you know, some of the things that we really could make more efficient portfolio requests, right? That was the great example of how many portfolio requests. And yet there still has to be human touch involved. And if we can just figure out a way to kind of use AI to really, you know, help us expedite that process and become more efficient, think of how much time that’s giving back your staff. How many times, uh, we’re answering that phone call, answering that email, text message for a portfolio request, right? You know, in fact, one of the panelists was talking about kind of the, the gap in technology in our industry specifically and saying that we’re definitely making progress, but are we there? And, and her cited example was, was ordering room service, right? So we’ve got this great QR code, you look at the menu and everything like that, you still have to pick up a manual phone or your cell phone to order it from the hotel. So we start there, we start at this technologically, you know, sound place with the QR code, but then at the very end we’re, we have to get these, we have to get that human touch involved. And if there’s a way to automate that process, again, how much smoother and efficient and for the guest side that’s gonna feel and impact the guest experience, which what we’re trying to do, you know, I was talking to Alexi Kajavi president at Questex Hospitality and Wellness about this in our interview, which, um, all of the interviews that, that I’m gonna be talking about today on this episode, you can find on our YouTube page, we’re gonna be releasing them over the next couple weeks. And I was talking to him about, there’s gotta be a feeling of this fomo when it comes to AI for hoteliers. You know, there was someone from Salesforce on a panel talking about how they have implemented AI into their work processes and order to essentially get a year’s worth of rollouts and updates into one quarter. And you hear something like that from a hotelier standpoint and you say, am I really taking advan full advantage of what AI is? And I think we have these grand ideas of when we hear ai, when we hear, you know, technology within the hotel industry. I think we go straight to maybe some sci-fi esque type things where, you know, you’ve got the robots delivering things, you’re going ultra speed when it comes to your operations to processes, you can cut down on staff. And I certainly think that there’s going to be a time where we get there, but really right now it’s becoming small steps. How do we implement the power of AI in our everyday lives as hoteliers? You know, one of the things we did at Travel Media Group was launch the guest experience snapshot, which looks at your guest reviews. AI gets that information and kind of summarizes that information, gets it back to you, not just with emojis or a thumbs up or thumbs down, but actually blurbs bullet points into what guests are actually saying about their stay. And then it actually provides you with suggestions and recommendations on what you can do to improve the guest experience. So, small example there, but a very powerful way to implement AI into your everyday operations so you can feel a little bit better about when that question’s asked of, are you truly taking advantage of AI and it’s power and capability? You can at least say, yes, I’m on the path to doing that. ’cause I think right now we’re at that place where a lot of hoteliers, if you ask them, are you taking full advantage? They’ll probably answer no. But if you ask them what pieces of the hotel operation have changed since you implemented ai, I think there’s a lot of hoteliers that can say yes. You know, we have implemented some AI into our everyday operations, and if we can just take those baby steps, you know, hospitality, we love it as an industry, but we’re very slow to implement technology. You know, COVID, uh, certainly accelerated that path. AI’s gonna continue to do that, but overall, there’s a whole panel and session on this is how can we accelerate technology into our industry? But it really should be about empowering, uh, your employees. So how can I use AI to again, assist with portfolio polls a request when guests are are asking me, how can I summarize my guest feedback like the TMG guest experience snapshot, these little things. And, and with a younger generation kind of coming into the workforce, a lot of these college kids right now have had chat GBT for the last two years, right? They’ve probably been told not to use it in their college courses, but as they graduate and get to the workforce, guess what they are going to be used to working with these AI and new technology. So if you don’t have something laid out or if you have an inefficient process, a manual process, it really could hurt you in the recruiting front too. Your younger generation, that younger generation coming up into the hospitality, that new generation that we’re talking about on the college campus call that we did at the Suite Spot, they’re ready for that. They’re, they have an appetite for new technology. Make sure that you’re providing that for them. So AI from a hotelier’s perspective, number one, key takeaway number two, FMB is the place to be. Okay? So a lot of talk about FMB in the hotel. Now, FMB has always been ingrained in the guest experience, the hotel. And in fact, we had an amazing guest that we interviewed at the Hospitality Show from Hampton by Hilton, uh, sharing some really tasty news about a, uh, brand new waffle that was just introduced at Hilton. But now hotels are starting to think beyond breakfast. You know, there’s a reason why that is. On our guest sentiment reports at Travel Media Group, there’s a reason why breakfast and f and B always find its way into the top 10 and sometimes even top five most mentioned tags in guest reviews. It’s a major piece of a hotel experience. And hoteliers are seeing that. The hospitality show really leaned into that this year for the first time, they had an outdoor hospitality showcase where they were showing really creative ways that you could use your outdoor space for f and b, whether that’s bar, whether that’s food. You had, uh, uh, an incredible keynote from Jose Andres, the, uh, famed restaurateur and philanthropist who had just some incredible stories with some recent natural disaster and how food and hospitality, he was also really grateful and thankful for those hotels that stay open during those natural disasters so that he and his team can go into these disaster areas and provide food for those that are most need at that time. But it goes beyond that, you know, hotel restaurants, you know, I had Paul Cory on from Cory Hospitality, he mentioned it. Hotel restaurants are now becoming community gathering spots. We’re seeing at Travel Media Group more interest than ever on hoteliers and properties that we work with that wanna manage their online reputation and, and respond to their, uh, guest reviews that are leaving reviews about their restaurants because they know that that’s a powerful differentiator for their property. This is also a really amazing opportunity for you to showcase your local area, your culture, personalization, hotels, new developments. I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing multiple GMs, managing director of brand new developments. And the place where I really hear the passion shine through in those episodes is when they’re talking about their f and b and the meticulous planning that goes around those restaurants, hoteliers, developers, they’re seeing this as a, a revenue generator. It’s a differentiator. And it’s also, again, a way for you to really embrace your local area, your culture. I mean, San Antonio, we had the Chief Strategy Officer from Visit San Antonio, another interview we conducted at the Hospitality Show. He was talking all about how they’re really focused on Michelin’s coming to Texas for the first time, how they’re really focusing on cuisine and, uh, f and b travel, which is, is is a growing, growing trend right now. So f and b, certainly the place to be. My second key takeaway at the Hospitality show. Third key takeaway, sustainability. I love these conferences be, I love the hospitality show in general because all of the brands, all of the power players from management companies are present at this show. They have a a, a really big presence there. And what you find is in hospitality, obviously there’s a lot of differences, but there’s a lot of the same. And those big issues like sustainability, responsible, uh, green travel starts to rise to the top. You had multiple brands making commitments that we’ve seen over the last couple years to green initiatives. One of the panelists kind of use the phrase little to bigs. So over the years, if you’ve traveled anywhere, you’ve probably seen those small shampoo or lotion bottles, body wash, and now those were used to be those little plastic containable. Now we’re in kind of a dispenser mode, right? So you’re little to bigs. There was some incredible stats shared of the plastic and frankly, the savings that were, uh, monetary savings that were associated, uh, with that trend and how more and more ho hotels are adopting this. But one thing I would challenge the ho hotel and hospitality industry to do is to really educate the guests on why we’re making these changes. I think one of the best things that really became popular, you know, three to five years ago was the housekeeping rule, right? Keeping your towels up versus throwing ’em on the floor knowing if you wanted a fresh towel or not, right? That was effectively communicated to the guests and there was a real reason and kind of responsibility around it as your guests to make that decision. You almost felt accountable for that. If you were keeping your towel, you know, you felt maybe a little bit like you were doing a little bit of good, right? A little bit of green travel there. Some of these changes that we’re implementing are fantastic for sustainable travel. They just have to be properly communicated to our guests, right? Recent example for me personally was at a a, a great hotel in San Antonio. The water pressure was a little bit lower than I preferred, right? But as, as I’m sitting there thinking about that, wishing that water pressure was a little higher, I started thinking, well, maybe this was a, a something implemented from the hotel for a low flow, uh, water system for green as kind of a sustainable initiative for the property. But I didn’t see any sort of cards talking about that. You know, I didn’t see anything that communicated to me that that was the case. Now, I knew that because I work in the hospitality industry and I knew that that is a sustainable practice that hotels do, but for a lot of guests they don’t know that, right? So challenging hotels to really communicate any from anything locally sourced food at your f and b, if that’s locally sourced, that goes a long way. Your guests will appreciate that. Any green initiative, make sure that’s communicated. It makes for some great social media posts. Goodwill could be a differentiator for you, especially with the younger generation, which we’re gonna talk about. You know, corporate travel, they’re gonna start looking a lot closer at this. I heard, you know, the other day talking about monetary budget and a carbon budget on corporate travel. They are going to start really focusing in on those properties, those hotels, cities in general that have really green sustainable practices that they’re implementing at their properties. You know, some of the questions that were raised on the sustainable panel, things like renovations, right? I think a stat was brought up where there was actually more of an environmental impact on bringing in all the materials that they needed for that renovation than it was actually the efficiency savings that they were gonna get post renovation. So how do we manage that? Sourcing our materials for renovations? What do we do with the waste Best? Western was talking about how they implemented something where there needs to be 50 inch TVs in all of their hotels by a certain date. Some of the franchisees were asking, what do we do these existing TVs, right? Isn’t that creating more waste? So these are important questions that our industry has to answer for the most part. The good news is, is that we’re getting there, we’re making progress. A lot of commitments. A HLA, there’s some amazing things with Green Key Global, which they just announced this past year, absolutely amazing to see. It’s gonna start impacting bookings. I talked about this, especially younger travelers who prioritize this. This is something that’s important to them, right? We think of when I pick a hotel location, a price, we could see a day where a traveler looks at price, location reviews and they also could look at what’s the green initiatives? What’s my carbon footprint? We’re already seeing that on airlines that will show you the carbon footprint that you’re taking. Which one is most efficient as far as your flight goes. So I it is, it is not within the realm and it’s also gonna be, IM important to recruiting employees, right? When you’re talking about hiring someone and you’re able and, and they’re looking at a job, a front desk agent for your property or the property next door, very similar pay, very similar location. Maybe opportunity for growth is a distinguishing factor that you prioritize sustainability in your operations at your hotel. That is absolutely something that someone would find as compelling and could be a, a positive differentiator for you in your recruitment efforts. So again, keep all of that in mind as you move forward and start to implement these practices moving forward. We had credible idea that’s being implemented right now. One of the Suite Spot guests that we had, uh, I believe a year ago said along with the physical invoice, you know, monetary invoice for your stay, you also were included a carbon invoice. So you know, the carbon footprint that essentially your stay cost quote unquote. I just think really, really creative idea. There could be something where, you know, people get competitive showcase that online could make for some great marketing. So sustainability, uh, my key takeaway number three from the hospi, the 2024 hospitality show. Number four, back to ai. This is where we started the episode. We talked about AI with hotels, hotel owners and and management and operations. What about AI and the travelers journey? Really, really cool things that we heard could be coming down the pike. Travel planning with ai. You know, one of the things that the panelists was talking about, how the younger generation has shown that they are prioritizing experience, overt material. That is fantastic news for the hotel industry. They are gonna continue to do just as much research as you would do on Amazon. If you’re buying a new car. Think about the amount of research that you do when you’re buying a new car. So this younger generation that is prioritizing experience over material. They are going to do their due diligence, they have the channels to do it, and they have maybe different channels that we’ve been prioritizing as a hotel industry, right? Social media, we’ve seen completely be a place where TikTok right now is more of a search engine than Google. For some hotels, that’s a scary thought, especially if you don’t have an account. Instagram is someone where they’re sharing information. But with that, a big thing that they were talking about AI and maybe some of the kind of caution flags for hotels out there in hospitality is we’re gonna fake feedback is gonna become a real problem here soon. Whether that’s deep fake images, fake blog posts, fake guest reviews, we know that that’s a huge problem. This is gonna continue to be an issue for hotels and it’s really going to impact those that really rely too heavily on AI to create content for them online authenticity is was the word of the year last year, right? And it’s only going to become more powerful. If you can create authentic experience that guests share a trusted guest share on credible sources out there, you will have an advantage because this fake feedback is limitless. Really. If you wanted to create as much fake imagery about your hotel, you can, there’s ai, generat, uh, image generators out there, but it’s gonna negatively impact your business. In fact, one of the suggestions was actually to hire a team and that we might see this in the future, a team to audit your online presence to look for fake feedback, look for fake images, fake blogs, anything that looks inauthentic online. The more we see this, the more especially younger generation who’s coming up, they have a lot of money now. They’re getting into the workforce, they’re starting to travel more. They are able to see this with a different eye than we were five years ago. ’cause it just wasn’t as prevalent. So number four, key takeaway AI in the traveler’s journey. I’m excited every, everyone on this listening to this podcast is a traveler. So there, there’s some really cool, innovative ways that you can start searching for travel, but it’s going to be the hotels on the other side that are leveraging that properly and authentically that are going to have the competitive advantage there. Last and final key takeaway, this is the first year that they actually conducted these on the main stage was the GM of the Year awards. And the reason, this is my fifth takeaway. We just work in such an awesome industry. Some of the nominees, winners and their stories. I would absolutely encourage you look up that GM of the year and hear some of the stories and you will just be moved by the hospitality spirit in some of these people. Um, from everything for people that have been in this industry for 35, 40 years and still have a passion for it and have, you know, we talk about in sports how coaches typically have coaching trees and the amount of managers and hospitality leaders that one person can impact is absolutely insane to think about. And when it’s, when it’s recognized, it’s such a powerful thing to, you know, helping people in natural disasters. You know, one of the GMs was recognized, you know, had to go through those fires last year in Hawaii. And to hear the stories and how that hotel opened its doors to its employees, to the local community and the impact that that hotels and hoteliers have on their, their local community can’t be understated. And it was a very, very powerful piece. I’m so happy that that was on highlighted and showcased on the main stage this year. I hope they continue to do it again. We just have such an incredible industry. We had the pleasure of interviewing one of the GM of the Year nominees, Michael Milon, and we have an interview with him. He’s also an FIU professor, so we got to talk about our visit there in the Suite Spot college campus cr. But yeah, my fifth and final takeaway, it’s just, we just are in such incredible industry. It’s to hear, uh, some of those stories was just so inspiring. So happy that they do that because that’s really what makes our industry great, is the people that work there. So those are my five key takeaways from the second annual Hospitality show. So happy that I was able, that had the pleasure of, of joining Plan on being there in Denver next October. Plan for it as well. Again, if you haven’t been thinking about it, definitely make the trip. It is well worth it. Thank you for listening to The Suite Spot and we’ll talk to you next time.To join our loyalty program, be sure to subscribe and give us a five star rating on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host Ryan Embree and we hope you enjoyed your stay.

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23min
October 23, 2024 150 – Introducing: Guest Experience Snapshot powered by TMG OneView®AI
The Guest Experience Snapshot powered by TMG Oneview® AI is here!
Tune in to hear from the Chief Technology Officer at Travel Media Group, Jason Lee, on the latest technological innovation being offered to hoteliers as a part of our digital solutions for hotels.
This new offering uses generative AI in a unique way to help hoteliers interpret guest feedback and dial in on how they can improve the guest experience at their properties

Episode Transcript
Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio.
Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check-in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree. If you are watching us here on YouTube, we have a few announcements to make. First, we’ve hit an incredible milestone. This is Suite Spot, 150 episodes. Thank you all. I just wanna take a moment before we get started on this great episode that we have today to thank everyone for taking the time to listen to us for all of your support. You know, 150 episodes is something absolutely insane saying it out loud. So again, thank you. And we have a very familiar guest who I feel like we’ve been on quite a number of these episodes. Jason, our Chief Technology Officer at Travel Media Group. Jason Lee, thank you again for joining me on the Suite Spot.
Jason Lee:
Thank you, Ryan. Really excited to talk to you about this today.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, we’re super excited. And if you’re watching us, like I said on YouTube, if you’re not, first of all encourage you go to our YouTube channel, you’re gonna find some exclusive content there that you’ll only find on YouTube. But if you are watching us on YouTube, you’ll see we might have a little bit different feel and vibe. We have moved into a brand new Suite Spot. We are so excited to showcase this new space. It was custom built. You are gonna see all types of new looks from this space. New, exciting content, so be sure to follow and subscribe The Suite Spot. We’ve got so much jam packed for you. But speaking of innovation and new, that is exactly what we’re here to talk about. Jason, we have had a number of episodes talking about the incredible developments that you and your dev team here at Travel Media Group and some of the innovation that you’ve put out there. This might be one of the most innovative, the guest experience snapshot powered by TMG OneView ai. Before we get talking about it, what we’ve come to learn is with these innovations, there’s always kind of a story or a why behind it. Walk us through that with this guest experience snapshot.
Jason Lee:
Well, for a long time, I mean, we obviously accumulate reputation data. So we’re, we get data from all the sites, we get it from all the hotels. And so we have been, anybody who’s seen any of our stuff knows, we have lots of numbers, lots of ways of kind of creating different types of metrics, and showing those metrics in various forms. And I think that’s really sort of industry standard where we get a metric or a KPI, we sit on that, we manage to that. And in some ways you sort of lose like what that KPI is for. So you’re sort of like almost the purpose for your improvement of a KPI is the KPI. Instead of for what the KPI was originally for. And I think with reputation, we sort of get into that where you have so much data that you sort of lose, you lose track of what is most important. And so what we wanted to do is even going deeper than sentiment analysis. So sentiment analysis really was this natural language processing that we have been doing for quite a while where we take sentence chunks and we look at word modifiers and things like that to create positive, neutral and negative statements inside of a review and then take those down further into the various aspects of a guest stay. With this though, with generative AI, we have an opportunity to actually pull even further than that and take, it’s not just the metrics. So what you’ll find is when you look at the guest experience snapshot, there is no metric on it. It’s literally the text of the guest. It’s the experience a guest had and the text that multiple guests had. So the text that of that experience. So for example, if a bunch of guests really loved the experience at the front desk with, with the staff at the front desk, you would see most guests mention an amazing front desk experience. And then there might be a front desk clerk’s name called out inside of that sentence. And then you’ll see maybe 17 mentions. And so what that’s doing then is it’s saying, here’s sort of like, it’s accumulating all of this text and saying from that, here’s this thing that went right. And then the same thing for thing, something that went wrong. And in the industry we really don’t have anything like that. I think TripAdvisors sort of went out there and created sort of a summary of guest sentiment that they put out. They’re like, oh, this is AI generated and it’s a summary of guest sentiment. But inside of like the ops side or where I’m maybe even evaluating what’s going on at this hotel from a management standpoint, all I have is metrics I don’t have unless I read one review at a time.
Ryan Embree:
Well, to put it in perspective, Jason, the educational webinars that we put on with reputation and social media, one of my kind of best practices was to physically print out some of your reviews and start highlighting those keywords that you’re seeing over and over again. So this is obviously the more technological next step to that, but also can give you some insights on how to improve on maybe the things that you’re falling short of.
Jason Lee:
No, absolutely. And I think that’s again, what makes this so powerful is that you’re coming out of maybe the emotion of a number, you know, and the emotion around the number to a KPI that you’re now getting into actual guest sentiment. The other issue with single review analysis, let’s say, is that it’s easy, very easy and common for you to take an issue, a single issue that a guest had and discard that as a one-off to say that this was circumstantially, this series of events happened, that this guest had a bad stay or they had a bad experience here, but this only happened to this guest, not to anybody else. So what we sort of see it, we see it in aggregate. So we sort of, of, as we’re responding to reviews or even looking at review data as a whole, we can sort of see this bigger picture. But as you’re sort of ingesting review by review either through alert system of your brand or through one view with TMG, you’re still just getting these little snippets instead of all this together. So what the other big purpose of this is to create this thing called interrater reliability, which basically, so in order for there to be a sentence chunk in the guest experience snapshot, multiple guests are, have to have had the same experience. And so that’s another big, the very, it’s a key point of this. So this is also something, so that’s why we start with positive and then go to negative is that you have a bunch of guests that are having great experiences. Here they are. Right. And then here you have the same, you have another bunch of guests that are having experiences that, that are really an opportunity operationally or an opportunity from a service standpoint, but you can now see them and you can’t discount it as a one-off.
Ryan Embree:
And sometimes that’s tough to do because, one of the things that now I challenge hoteliers with this, with this guest experience snapshot is say, what do you think are issues at your property? And match them up against what people are actually saying in your reviews, or what do you think people love about your property? And see if there’s alignment there. I think as hoteliers, we tend to think that we know our hotel better than anyone else, but our guests are really telling us at a moment’s notice what are the positive and negative things that they are experiencing at that time. And as we know, not every single person is going to a review site to leave that feedback. So if your inner rate of reliability is 6 or 7 mentions on an issue, that could really be three to four, five times more than what you’re seeing and guests are experiencing.
Jason Lee:
Correct. I think you take really, like probably the key pieces of sentiment, right? So probably the most looked at piece of sentiment is cleanliness. So you look at cleanliness, often we will see positive and negative cleanliness sentiment, and they will, they will be the top numbers. They’ll be the most people mentioned cleanliness, and the most people mentioned dirtiness. So it fits into that cleanliness, positive negative. So you have the same thing actually in the guest experience snapshot, but what we find in the guest experience snapshot is different types of mentions of cleanliness. I loved how the pool area was clean and beautiful. I loved the lobby. Right. And then there might be another mention there, then there’s multiple mentions of a bathroom issue. So when you see that you can, it’s way more you can diagnose that so much easier than saying, well, some of the guests like cleanliness and some of ’em don’t. It’s a 50/50.
Ryan Embree:
And it’s one of those things where if guests are reading reviews about your cleanliness in a negative light before they’ve even stepped on property, that has lowered the bar for what they think clean is for your property, they could come in and see if they’ve been reading all day reviews on multiple sites about, Hey, this room is dirty, you’re gonna come in naturally with a different eye than if you would’ve come in and not known that information. So this is really good to kind of take from an operational standpoint, but the AI doesn’t stop there, which is giving you that information. It actually gives you some ways to improve the guest experience too, which I think is really, really cool and unique.
Jason Lee:
Yeah. So we didn’t want to just leave it at that. And that’s why we also have these bundled in months. That’s why it’s a month at a time. And so we added something called recommendations, and it’s a really cool part of this, and it probably was the trickiest piece of training that we did by far. Because if you kind of leave generative AI to its own devices, it kind of, it says a bunch of crazy stuff. So we had to really reign it in and take real world scenarios and real world fixes. But what’s kind of cool about this is that things that you sort of go, you look at that are, that are maybe causing guest friction, but you as a hotel, you look at and you’re like, eh, you know what, how am I gonna change that? My hotel’s near a busy road? How am I gonna change roads? I can’t do that. So some of the recommendations that we have are really more, maybe not as much about how do you fix that? How do you fix the physical plant of your property? But it’s more about how do you inform guests? How do you create a situation where guests know the situation they’re walking into, you put them in the best possible position to set an expectation for their stay. And so some of that has to do with that. It’s about training your front desk to handle these situations in a different way.
Ryan Embree:
Absolutely. And you know, it’s educating the guests before they arrive. We’ve talked about that. By doing that in things like review responses, social media makes for a great way to do that. You know, one of the examples would be if someone says the lack of variety of food within your breakfast, right? Instead of maybe just talking about your breakfast on social media, show exactly what that breakfast looks like. And then all of a sudden, now I know what to expect when I come on property. I’m not expecting this breakfast buffet, this giant breakfast buffet. I know exactly what I’m getting. Might not necessarily turn it around and say, this is a great variety, but it actually will lessen the blow and maybe improving your reputation on a few points. But it could be something where that recommendation also says maybe add variety. Right? And talk about that. And we’ve heard stories. I mean, we talk to hoteliers every single day and encourage them to make little tweaks and changes like that. And the guest experience snapshot, month over month looking at that will give you a good indicator of the sentiment of what guests are feeling about those changes.
Jason Lee:
Absolutely. It’s that kind of like, interesting thing. So it’s not like we’re telling you how to run your hotel. It’s just giving you some, like, some ideas that these little irritants that are happening. I’ll give you an example. We had a hotel, that we sort of were looking at from the beginning. And so we’ve had this now live for three months, and in the first month we noticed that they were having issues with their shower doors, like the doors specifically. There was a bunch of mentions in the first, in the first time we looked at it. And so the next month came, and again, there were mentions of the doors and it had a little bit of a different text, but it was the same mention. The third one had the same mention. And so, you know, so the recommendations are sort of like varying a little bit, but still trying to be like, Hey, you know, I wanna look into this. And I do think it’s those kinds of things, is keeping it top of mind. You’re not gonna fix everything all the time. You know, there’s things that, that are gonna be stuff that maybe are part of your renovation or they’re part of other things, but it’s about awareness that they’re causing guest friction. And talking to that, one thing that’s sort of hard in operations is you’re, you’re balancing so many other things and just getting to that space where you’re saying, yeah, this is a problem. And admitting that to yourself and saying, yeah, this is a problem. But then being proactive about it. I guarantee any hotel you’re listening to this podcast right now has rooms at their hotel right now that they rent last. It’s like the last rooms I rent because I know there’s problems. So I know there’s gonna be issues down this corridor. But that’s what this is really about. It’s about taking this data and making it very accessible, very usable.
Ryan Embree:
And we’ve spent a lot of time on this podcast episode talking about the negative things. And one of the things is it also provides all the great sentiment that guests are saying, and this could be a great gameplan and blueprint for you for a social media strategy if you are seeing that people love attractions, restaurants, location, start sharing the businesses that are near your location to just even further amplify all the things that guests love about the property. So I know we’ve talked a lot about recommendations and fixing things and obviously the things, the low hanging fruit that we can fix to improve the guest experience, we’re always looking to do that. But it’s also a great guidebook on using what people, what guests love to market the hotel. Right?
Jason Lee:
Yeah, absolutely. And there’s a lot of really great points inside there, and I think social media is a great place to use it. So, you know, we have really friendly people at our front desk and our guests talk to us about it all the time. You know, why not, why not mention it?
Ryan Embree:
And there’s also some really cool use case and potentially using competitor data, right? We’ve talked about that on this podcast, on educational webinars. Sometimes when you’re reading those reviews about guest cleanliness and you don’t happen to have a cleanliness problem highlighting things like a housekeeper for the month, talking about your cleanliness protocols, subconsciously, when you see that and your competitors have struggling with their cleanliness scores, now all of a sudden you have the upper hand competitive advantage. And we’re always looking for that, especially in a really crowded competitive market there.
Jason Lee:
But I think this type of data to your point where you were just talking about, I think you can print this out and bring it to your front desk meeting. Talk about the positive things that are going on. Really praise people for the, the positive comments that are coming in and then say, Hey, and then we also add some stuff we need to work on for this month, you know, and let’s, let’s, let’s do it. We will revisit this next month. So it’s a, it’s kind of a cool way to, you know, same thing with housekeeper maintenance, but it, I think it’s a very kind of portable, cool thing you can use inside of these meetings to help make things better.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah. It’s so cool. And, and be mindful also of the season at which you’re looking at this, right? I always talk about summer being the ultimate stress test for a lot of these properties. You might be able to keep that room that you were talking about unoccupied throughout the winter just because your occupancy isn’t there. But all of a sudden, on summer you’re renting that thing every single night. And problems maybe that were like minor issues are now starting to bubble up into major problems during those summer months. We saw an influx, a huge influx. I mean, you guys were on pace for responding to reviews to what, what was the number?
Jason Lee:
Like over 40,000 a month.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah. An incredible amount of reviews, which is fantastic, bcause a lot of hoteliers saw those guests. And that made for a very busy travel season. But it also can really uncover some things looking year to year, month to month, all of those variables there are gonna really create some cool patterns and trends. Give you some extra insights into the, the property.
Jason Lee:
Yeah. We launched this in summer, so we did see a lot of, like, to your point, we saw a lot of AC climate control stuff. You know, because it could be going back to a stress test. It’s your first stress test, with a full hotel and everybody using the AC.
Ryan Embree:
Let’s talk about AI because I feel like one of the things that we’ve been seeing, whether it be on social media or reading and publications and stuff like that, is the use case for AI within hospitality typically in an industry that I would argue is a little bit slower to get to technology, implement technology, but we respond to reviews. Right. Super important. We’ve talked about the importance of responding reviews, hit some milestones with, I think we’re closer to 1.8 million guest reviews responded to. Maybe there’s some hoteliers on here that are saying, well, why not use AI for responding to reviews? What would you say to those hoteliers?
Jason Lee:
Generative AI has come a very long way, and it feels like almost like weekly. New models are coming out, new pieces to this puzzle are coming out. So not just text, but also image and other stuff that it’s just unbelievable. Just incredible. But we’re still kind of in this weird space, I think, and especially when it comes to review response. So I think you get to this space where you can, there’s spots where you could use it but not yet hear. And the reason why we have not gone there and, and we’re actually really careful about this and very deliberate about this. We’re using it in tech summary and some of these other places to create better analytics. But when it comes to communicating with the guests, we’re very deliberate in that space. And the reason why we are is because we see that as actual communication. We don’t see that as some sort of throwaway platitude from AI. We see this as, this is a, this is a human being who stayed with us, and we want to be as part of that conduit between the hotel and their guest. Our responsibility is to represent them in the best possible way, not just to the guest who wrote it, but to all the people that read it. And we think, you know, the primary pillars of of review response have to do with communication. It’s authentic communication to the guest who wrote this review. And if you do that correctly, you do that in a really sincere way, it resonates with the guest who’s reading it. And guess what, you get some dividends with the OTAs for responding to all your reviews and other things on top of that, you know, you get three really powerful pieces of ROI out of review response. But I think if you don’t have that first part, if that is insincere and that’s funky, and AI uses very specific language. And you’ll see vocabulary that is not normally used in the course of communication that a lot of AI uses. You could spot it in emails that you get sometimes you spotted in these various spots. And, and I guarantee an insincere, verbose response is probably AI or template. And so we don’t use either at this point, you know, in the foreseeable future, especially for negative reviews, I don’t ever see that happening just because you have to be, I think in the moment, sincere acknowledging the issue and looking to create recovery.
Ryan Embree:
And what I would say to that is, if not in hospitality, then where, right? I mean, as far as we are looking for a human to human, as we’ve learned, this is the oldest industry out there hosting people. What have we heard over the years of, oh, well at one point we’re just gonna have a virtual check-in and that’s never come to pass. And how many times are we seeing that sometimes a experience is make or break at the front desk because of another person behind the desk? And I think that is a great illustration of why this human to human communication, can it be done? Sure. But it’s not gonna be as impactful. And as you mentioned, as more inauthentic communication begins to rise. And we’re seeing that in our emails every single day. The authenticity is gonna start to bloom out of these organizations and companies and businesses that really embrace that. Well said on your end, this guest experience snapshot, it’s so cool to see AI come to Travel Media Group and this be the first way that it is because it goes back to where Travel Media Group started, which was to help hoteliers. Help hoteliers improve the guest experience. And that’s exactly what this cool innovative tool is doing. So congratulations to and your team Jason, on this. Any final thoughts before we wrap up?
Jason Lee:
Yeah. You know, I will say, just one last thing. As I always do.
Ryan Embree:
That’s why we have the question in here.
Jason Lee:
I think all of this is really what Travel Media Group does or what we try to do. What I aim for on a regular basis with our review response team, our social media team, our development team, is that what we’re able to do is we’re able to focus here, we’re able to focus on reputation, we’re able to focus on the information, we’re able to focus on responses, we’re able to do that because we’re not operating because we’re not doing these other things. And so we’re able to really care about this. And we do. And I think that, you know, really is what all of these tools are about. It’s about giving you the information in a way that’s palatable, giving you the information in a way that’s accessible, but also helping, helping in a way that you might not even be able to help yourself just because of the level of care and focus that we have on it. And, and I really, I mean, I passionately believe in this part of the guest experience that this is their final experience with your hotel and we are just so committed. I know this is a sales pitch, Ryan, but I’m gonna say it anyway, but we are so committed to making sure that that experience is meaningful and impactful.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah. Well, it certainly felt and the way that you talk about it and the solutions and innovations that you and your team are developing over in development. So congratulations again, any hotelier listening to this or your hotel portfolio of hotels, this is something that if you reach out to us, we can give you a guest experience snapshot. We’ve got a live demo that we are putting on together. Would love to get you this information. If anything, like I said, make it a challenge. I think these are the five things that issues with my property right now. Here are the five things that people love, see how many of them match up. And, you know, it’s just cool information to see and how AI is continuing to kind of change our hospitality world. So thank you Jason. And thanks for joining me on The Suite Spot for 150.
Jason Lee:
Thanks Ryan.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, thanks. And we’ll talk to you next time on The Suite Spot. To join our loyalty program, be sure to subscribe and give us a five star rating on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host, Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.

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23min
October 09, 2024 149 – Suite Spot: Spotlight – Hyde Midtown Miami
The Suite Spot visits the Hyde Midtown Miami in the next episode of the Spotlight series. General Manager of the hotel, Henry Martinez joins the podcast to give travelers an insightful look into the guest experience and what makes the property one-of-a-kind for travelers.
Episode Transcript
Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio.
Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree. We are not here at our Travel Media Group studio. Instead, we are live on-site for another incredible and amazing edition of our TMG Suite Spot: Spotlight series. We’ve got such an exciting property to showcase today and an amazing guest to do it with. Henry Martinez, General Manager of the Hyde Midtown Miami. Henry, thank you so much for being on the podcast with me.
Henry Martinez :
Well, thank you for hosting me.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, we’re excited about it. Before we get into this incredible property that I just had the pleasure of touring all around and seeing, let’s talk about your hospitality journey. This is one of the most unique things in our industry. Everyone coming from all aspects of maybe not starting in hospitality, but ending up there. Uh, what made you fall in love with hospitality? Where’s your journey and, and led you here to the Hyde Midtown Miami?
Henry Martinez :
Excellent. Absolutely. Well, first I’d like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to share with you and your audience a bit about our hotel. So how my journey started, I went to college unsure what to study and with very limited knowledge of the English language. So I took a career exploration test. Now I think it’s called a career workshop, which is an aptitude test. And that test is designed to determine a person’s ability or propensity to succeed in a given activity. Meaning there’s really no right or wrong answer, and to no surprise hospitality came on top. So my career in hospitality truly expands over two decades, working at seven different properties and opening four hotels, beginning as a front desk agent. I quickly advanced through various roles within the rooms division, and eventually stepping into leadership positions such as director rooms and director of operations. In April of 2022, I was honored to take the role of general manager of Hyde Midtown Miami. Each step of the journey has prepared me to do what I love the most, which is interacting with people and trying to make a difference in their lives.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, absolutely. It’s a common story that we hear, is a lot of hospitality leaders didn’t really think about hospitality as a career, and then once they get into it, they really find a passion for it and a love for it. So fantastic to hear. I came from very similar beginnings, front desk, work your way up. You know, that’s what the stories that we love to hear about with this. So let’s move on to this incredible property that we’re at right now. Had the amazing privilege, like I said, to tour it with you this morning to show me the grounds. But before we get into talking about specific amenities or the room types, talk to me a little bit about the history of the project and how the Hyde Midtown Miami came to be.
Henry Martinez :
Absolutely. Hyde Midtown Miami is a true gem. It offers an intimate, welcoming atmosphere. Our location couldn’t be better right in the heart of Byron City activity and only a 15 minute drive to the beach. Designed by the renowned architect, David Rockwell. The hotel reflects the essence of local art and culture, creating an ambience that resonates with both young professionals and leisure travelers. And it’s really the only property of its kind in the midtown area, making a tough choice for those looking to truly engage with the lively Miami community.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, we’re gonna talk about that incredible location here in a minute, but it really is an immersive atmosphere. I mean, we walk through those lobby doors, everything that you just said about the art from the art being in the lobby, just the feel and the vibe of this hotel is fantastic and I encourage my entire audience to check it out for themselves. But let’s talk about the hide brand. You know, locations all over the world, very fast growing. Maybe share with our Suite Spot audience who’ve never stayed at Hyde before, what they can expect from this brand.
Henry Martinez :
Sure. At any Hyde location, the guest experience comes to life through key touch points. Guests can look forward to an experience that goes beyond the typical hotel stay, Hyde is designed for those who appreciate art, culture and community. Just like the one that we’re sitting in right now, the moment you step into our expansive art filled lobby, you’ll feel the vibrant energy of the space. We pride ourselves on hosting social events and providing unparallel amenities. It’s all about creating connections here. Hyde is about embracing a fun lifestyle that encourages both relaxation and social connections.
Ryan Embree:
Well, speaking of connections, we are right at an intersection of art and decor, and we went out onto the seventh floor. You were able to point to me to the design district where Wynwood was the airport. I mean, the old adage is location, location, location. And you have it right here. Paint a picture that you painted with me right outside of these doors of where everything and how centralized this property is when it comes to the different areas of Miami.
Henry Martinez :
Absolutely. I’ll be happy to. Hyde Midtown Miami has an unbeatable location. As I showed you earlier this morning, in the heart of some of Miami’s most vibrant neighborhoods, just steps from the hotel, you can immerse yourself in the colorful murals of the Wynwood Art District and indulge in luxury shopping at the stylish boutiques in the design district. This neighborhood has so many restaurants, cafes, and even a Dog Park that I showed you earlier, I’m sure that there’s always something exciting to discover. Again, it’s all about embracing Miami culture.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, no, absolutely. And it’s felt through these doors. And a big part of that and a big part of the guest experience is art. You know, I want to talk about kind of the relationship of art in this hotel because it seems like it’s really ingrained in the hotel experience. You want people to leave these lobby doors and really appreciate the design, the architecture, and the art associated with Hyde Midtown Miami.
Henry Martinez :
I’ll tell you Ryan, a feeling that I got from the moment that I joined Hyde Midtown Miami, I recognize the immense potential of incorporating art to enrich our guest experience. We wanted something that will not only enhance the attractiveness of the property, but also connect with a cultural excitement of Miami itself. This vision came to life through our collaboration with Steven Manes, the founder of the Manolis Projects Gallery, one of South Florida’s most renowned contemporary art spaces. After visiting the gallery with my assistant general manager, Robinson Rodriguez and Marketing manager Capri Crescio, it became clear that this partnership will be perfect fit for us. The gallery’s bold, modern look aligned seamlessly with the creative energy we wanted to foster a high midtown. The result is the big picture exhibition that you saw in the lobby earlier, a carefully curated collection that invites our guests to experience art as part of their state. This collaboration has elevated our property without a doubt, transforming it into more than just a place to stay, but an immersive artistic experience.
Ryan Embree:
Absolutely. It is an experience. We walked into that lobby and your eyes, you just can’t take your eyes off the incredible art, and I’m sure that this is something that really is a part of the guest experience and definitely something I wanted to bring up today. We talked about all the things there are to do outside of the hotel, right? We’re talking about some of the art inside, but there’s also a ton to do with the amenities that you shared with me. I mean, everything, we’ve got almost 90% suites at the property each with a balcony, a giant balcony mind you, overlooking some green space. You’ve got a tennis court out there, which was recognized as one of the best tennis courts by Conde Nast. Talk to us a little bit about the amenities that you have here at the Hyde Midtown Miami.
Henry Martinez :
You know, very fortunate, to be leading a team at Hyde Midtown Miami. We created a home-like comfort that blends perfectly with our upscale accommodations. Our suites with stunning floor to ceiling windows and most feature outdoor balconies that offer views of the Miami skyline. We have equipped each guest room with modern conveniences, including a kitchenette and spacious bathrooms with premium bath amenities. One of the highlights of our property is the seventh floor rooftop area that I took you earlier this morning, which truly feels like a private retreat. Here you can enjoy an Olympic-sized swimming pool surrounded by large gardens, tennis, core pot and green. And our state-of-the-art gym not only features the latest fitness equipment, but also a stunning bay views. Salva Miami, blends global flavors with the creative fresh approach, serving up the dishes that are as bold, as vibrant as the city itself. Every detail is crafted to make dining an experience to remember.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, absolutely. We were up there at that space that you were talking about Henry, and it really puts into light all of the things that there are to do at the property, but you can also see everything that you can experience off property. So it’s a perfect blend there at this place, at this special hotel. Let’s do a little bit, a rapid fire quiz you a little bit on the property. Let’s talk about your favorite view at the property, Henry.
Henry Martinez :
Wow, good question. I have quite a few, but I think if I have to pick one, you know, the view from the rooftop pool area, it is absolutely amazing, especially at sunset. Truly a moment to remember while looking out of the Miami skyline.
Ryan Embree:
So private too. You were telling me, we both walked out on the pool deck and you’re like, it’s hard to believe this is on the seventh floor. And it absolutely was. I was like, it’s very private, very immersive, really relaxing atmosphere out there. So fun fact about the property. I always love to hear these.
Henry Martinez :
I think that besides the stunning pool that you saw, which is heated all year round, there’s not really that many properties here in Miami that have that feature, but we also have a fully equipped tennis court and putting green, which is perfect for active customers. And you know, you mentioned Conde Nast Travelers, one of the top four hotels as well in the world.
Ryan Embree:
What about a favorite piece of art at the property?
Henry Martinez :
Another hard to pick. You saw our lobby and the many art pieces that we have and we also have an incredible selection of art from all star artists in our hotel. If I really have to pick one, it will probably be a piece for my friend from Steven Manez, Title Citrus.
Ryan Embree:
One of the cool things, Henry, is that you also change out those pieces of art, right? It’s not something that’s constant the entire year. You’ll actually have different exhibitions within your lobby, correct?
Henry Martinez :
That is correct. Actually, this is the fourth exhibitions that we’ve done since I got to this hotel and we actually, there’s another one coming out for Art Basil pretty soon.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, we’re excited to see it. Henry, you know, as a general manager, I’ve had the pleasure of sitting down and interviewing a lot of hospitality leaders and general managers, but one of the most important pieces and task of a general manager is really keep a close pulse on your guests, right? You have to know the feedback, the sentiment they’re feeling about the experience they have, especially somewhere like this where there’s so much to experience, right? As general manager, as they walk out those doors, whether they’ve immersed themselves on the art, whether they’ve explored the design district, Wynwood, whether they’ve gone to the beach, which is again just a couple minutes away from this property. What do you hope that they say about their experience at the Hyde Midtown Miami?
Henry Martinez :
I take a lot of pride in my team as well on what the guest feedback is, but for the most part, the guest feedback has been very positive. Many highlight the engaging atmosphere and comfort of our suites and balconies. Our staff engagement and genuine appreciation receives praise consistently as well. Since the hotel opened in 2018, we rank among the top 10 hotels in Miami. In fact, in 2022 we were the number one ranked hotel in Miami on Triple Advisor. Currently we rank in the number four spot, but this achievement is just as a great testament to our team’s dedication and ongoing efforts to enhance the service we provide. But Ryan, Hyde Midtown staff are really the difference makers.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, I mean the hospitality was felt when me and my team walked in here, so we really appreciate you hosting us here. We’re looking to wrap up here. Any final thoughts before we wrap up Henry?
Henry Martinez :
Absolutely. I invite you to discover, the unique charm of Hyde Midtown Miami firsthand. It’s more than just a destination. It’s a vibrant, immersive experience that represents the very essence of Miami’s culture, creativity, and energy. Whether you’re visiting for the art, the atmosphere, or just to unwind, we strive to create moments, that are memorable and meaningful. And of course I encourage you to go to Instagram, find Hyde Midtown Miami and scroll through our feed. It’ll give you a taste of the dynamic lifestyle we are so proud to offer.
Ryan Embree:
Absolutely, Henry. And yeah, check out Hyde’s Instagram, give you a great taste of some of that art that we were talking about today. Give you a really good look at the location, some of the award-winning amenities. So thank you so much Henry, for you and your team being so gracious and letting the Suite Spot showcase this incredible property here.
Henry Martinez :
No, thank you. Thank you again. We hope that to see you again soon.
Ryan Embree:
Thank you so much Henry, and thank you for listening to The Suite Spot. We’ll talk to you next time to join our loyalty program. Be sure to subscribe and give us a five star rating on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.
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14min
September 25, 2024 148 – Suite Spot: Spotlight – Regent Santa Monica Beach
The Suite Spot is spotlighting the beautiful and newly renovated Regent Santa Monica Beach with special guest and General Manager of the property, Younes Atallah!
This episode covers all the exciting things travelers can look forward to from their stay at the property including dining, amenities, local attractions, and much more.
Tune in now!
Episode Transcript
Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio.
Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree, with another amazing episode for you today. Very excited to feature this episode. We are gonna be continuing our TMG Spotlight series, and if this is your first time hearing this, it’s one of my favorite series that we do on this podcast. It’s, it’s taken us all over the world at this point, right across the country, and today we are headed to beautiful Santa Monica Beach. With me today is my guest, Younes Atallah, General Manager of the Regent Santa Monica Beach. Younes, thank you so much for joining me on the Suite Spot.
Younes Atallah :
Thank you, Ryan, for having me. Good to be here.
Ryan Embree:
And this series, if this is your first time hearing, this is all about highlighting and showcasing some of the world’s most unique new properties that we’re gonna be talking about. Younes, your property over there, the region, Santa Monica Beach certainly fits the bill. But before we get talking about that, share with our audience a little bit about your hospitality background. We’d love to hear these stories and where we started, where we end up, and, which led you to becoming the first GM of the Regent Santa Monica Beach.
Younes Atallah :
Again, thanks for having me. It’s great to be here and I was born into travel and hospitality. My family owned a travel agency growing up. And, I’ve told this story a few times. It was a rite of passage for all the kids to work at the travel agency as part of our indoctrination. It was about a 50/50 success rate and the kids sticking to hospitality and travel. But I certainly did and went the hotel route, went to hotel school in Florida. My first job was, picking up the phones at what was then the Orlando Marriott downtown. I don’t even know that hotel still exists. But that was probably 30 ish years ago. I kind of jumped in with both feet and never looked back. I’ve been very fortunate. My career has taken me to some amazing places in the country in North America, actually. I’ve lived in Florida and Texas. I lived in Canada for a few years. And then more recently I was in Hawaii, in Arizona and then landed in California just about four years ago. So not terrible places to live, overall. So it’s been, it’s been a fun ride.
Ryan Embree:
Well, certainly. And that hospitality has taken you all over the country. We talk about all the time on this podcast how transferable, skills are, and I think that’s one of the beauties that is lost in our industry is that people serving people, you can do that in Florida, you could do that in California, Hawaii, even in different countries there. So to be able to take your talents across the country, I’m sure you have some incredible experiences in the hospitality and started your hospitality roots right here where we are just north of Orlando, Florida. So that’s, that’s incredible to hear. But before we start talking about your journey to the other side of the country, let’s talk about the Regent Hotel and Resorts brand. We got locations worldwide, but this is actually the first one in the Americas. Introduce our audience to this brand and what they can expect from it.
Younes Atallah :
Absolutely. This is really, an exciting time for region. Some of your listeners, Ryan, may actually be familiar with the Regent brand, especially if you’ve watched one of the most iconic movies of our time, which is Pretty Woman, which was, filmed at Reach Beil the region, Beverly Wilshire at the time. And that was the last region in the Americas. It’s really not a new brand. It’s a brand that’s being reintroduced and reinvigorated as we speak. Region has been around since the early seventies and has gone through various iterations throughout its history, but most recently in 2018, IHG Hotels and Resorts added region to its luxury and lifestyle portfolio. And we’re very much in Regent 2.0 land, if you will, in the last few years, we’ve added and opened some amazing properties in, like the region of Hong Kong, the Carlton Khan in the south of France. The region in Shanghai just opened a few months ago. And so to bring back region to the Americas and to Los Angeles specifically, it’s a little bit romantic because the last Regent was left the Americas from Los Angeles. So to bring it back to the LA area is pretty great and lots of growth in the pipeline for Regent and what IHG is doing with the brand and really growing. It is pretty, pretty impressive and very exciting. So keep an eye on it.
Ryan Embree:
It sounds like it, and it’s cool to have a history to a brand like that and then to reinvigorate, reintroduce it here like this in such a spectacular form with your property, which we’re gonna talk about in a minute. Have you had the chance to visit any of the other regions?
Younes Atallah :
I have. I’ve been fortunate in the last year to actually stay at the region, Hong Kong and the region, Carlton Kahn, and both pretty impressive properties, not just from a location and physical product, but really the heart and soul of what we do, which is the people in the service. The brick and mortar is a brick and mortar, pretty building is a pretty building wherever it might be, but the level of service and engagement is really quite special.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah. And we’re gonna talk about that in a minute and kind of how you’re telling your story as you’re set to open here and invite your first guest into the property, to your incredible Regent Santa Monica Beach. You know, you talked about it, uh, as, as a romantic journey. I’ve learned with new build & renovations, it’s typically a labor of love, sometimes there’s those missteps along the way, but at the end, it, that’s what makes it special, right? So tell us the story about this project, what made it special and how it came to be.
Younes Atallah :
Absolutely. So, this is a transformation. It’s not a new build. The, the building has been, really an anchor in Santa Monica for 30 years. I personally have been involved with this project and, and have been working in this building for the last four years. And so Santa Monica is one of those cities that is very close knit. People know people, people know each other. The community is very passionate about itself and about its iconicness. And so to have the support of the community is really kind of the first thing that was very important for us. As we embarked on this pretty lofty project, we closed the hotel in its previous form, if you will, in March of 2023. So about a year and a half ago, as you mentioned, we’re going to reopen in just a few weeks. The coolest thing about this transformation is that the vast, vast majority of the employee base who worked for many years in the building have stayed on, which is really great. Just so when we go back and we say, yeah, it’s an impressive project, and it’s a beautiful building and a beautiful location, but the heart and soul of of it is the people are all still here, which is great. But talking about it being a labor of love, we’re about to really bring luxury to Santa Monica for the first time in a long time, just to share a few stats with you. But the property is going to open with 167 keys, which includes 34 suites. It’s going to be the largest room offering in the market, really, probably in greater LA area at 720 square feet is our entry level rooms, which is a suite for a lot of our other friends and competitors. Not only will we have, obviously incredible views, which is very much a region brand distinction, if you will, as kind of these picturesque views and of the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Monica Pier. But we’re gonna have an amazing food and beverage offering. We’ve collaborated with Chef Michael Mina to have one of his concepts in the hotel. It’s called Orla. I love saying this. It kind of goes back to the romance. It’s Michael’s love letter to Egypt, which is his roots. So it’s a Mediterranean eastern, middle Eastern cuisine, which is amazing. We have a really great collaboration with Ayesha Curry for Sweet July, which our cafe concept. And then last but not least, we also have a 10,000 square foot spa that we’re working with Urla, out of Paris to bring, to bring their first West coast flagship, if you will, as far as a spa and well wellness facility is concerned. So lots, lots on the go.
Ryan Embree:
I love the collaboration between where you started that conversation, talking about the community and the people, and the people that stayed on and, and that are gonna know the property and in and out. And then the new concepts that you’re blending that old in the new and staying local, but also looking for inspiration worldwide. I think is gonna make this, and correct me if I’m gonna make a really unique experience for anyone that goes there. Now, there’s a common expression in our industry, location is everything. It certainly helps when you’re right, the located right in the middle of the most, one of the world’s most famous beaches. But for those who haven’t been in that area, Younes, could you paint us a little picture of the location, what’s around the hotel? What really makes that location so prime?
Younes Atallah :
The first thing I would say is if you haven’t been, this is an open invitation to come and visit Santa Monica ’cause it truly is one of the most amazing places in the country and very iconic. And, whether you’ve watched, Beverly Hills 90210 or whether you’ve watched Arnold Schwartzenegger training. This is our backyard. It’s really, it’s really pretty cool. But the property itself, the resort itself is located right on the beach, toes in the sand, just south of the Santa Monica Pier. We are, if you were to, I always like to say Santa Monica is a city on its own. We are our own city. We’re surrounded by Los Angeles on three sides and the beautiful Pacific on the fourth side. So, you just have to look west, just look at, look at the ocean, don’t worry about what’s behind you. So, the most amazing sunsets are very much can be witnessed from our pool deck with the Santa Monica pier right in the forefront. And after the sunsets, that Ferris wheel, which is probably top three postcards out of the country is lit up. You can see the reflection of the light on the ocean water. It’s really pretty spectacular. Whether you’re coming to do a little bit of shopping or whether it is to do a little bit of body surfing, a little bit of tanning, it’s all right here, literally in, in front of the hotel.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, I was gonna say, I don’t think you’re gonna have many problems with getting some pituresque things for social media, which we’re gonna talk about here. Being a digital marketing podcast, we love to talk about, you know, sharing experiences, but it helps when, you know, your guests are doing the majority of the sharing, right. We can, as businesses try to put out photos and all these pictures and sometimes we pay a lot of money to have things framed up. But when your guests are sharing authentic experiences, sometimes that is the stuff that’s most powerful out there. So that sunset that you’re talking about by the pool, having hundreds of pictures out there on, on Instagram and, and social media, I’m sure is gonna help already just help propel the reach of this incredible property. And we’re gonna talk about that in a minute, but you mentioned some of the partnerships, renowned chefs, celebrities that you’re pairing with. What are you most excited about? You know as those doors are yet to open, right? I’m sure there’s a lot of anticipation, excitement. What do you want those first guests to feel and experience when they walk in through those doors?
Younes Atallah :
This is not rehearsed. This is truly how I feel. Being in an urban area, the one thing that I think you get out of your car, look, Los Angeles is a busy city. LAX is a busy airport. We are not necessarily the closest destination for a lot of people. So it’s a commitment to come out here and sometimes it takes a long time or have to deal with traffic. And so the one thing I’m most excited about, as soon as our guests walk through the doors or really get into the driveway, it’s this elevating them above the noise. It’s this feeling that they’ve arrived. They don’t have to worry about all the noise in the background. We wanna take all of their worries, all of their stresses, regardless of why they’re coming to visit us and really have them step into a haven of sorts.
Ryan Embree:
I absolutely love that. That’s the type of experience that you hope, again, talking about digital marketing, you know, you hope that shared and you see those feelings and sentiment shared on online reviews, feedback from your guests, whether it’s face to face through to your employees of just being like, feel like I’ve kind of escaped here. A really, really cool to hear, and, you know, you can’t, can’t really spell luxury anymore in hospitality without incredible food and beverage. I think that’s part of the experience and the escape. And you mentioned it before your Mediterranean cuisine style, Orla, I’ve been seeing a lot of it in the press and the news. Share some details of what guests can expect for this one of a kind dining experience.
Younes Atallah :
Absolutely. And not only can I share it conceptually, but I actually have experienced Orla now twice in the last week because the Santa Monica location’s actually gonna be the second location for Chef Mina with Orla. The first one opened just a few months ago, in Las Vegas. And I happened to be there last week for work. And I got to, got to experience it twice. And I have to tell you, not only is the service on point, the cocktail programming is, is on point, but the food is very flavorful and very authentic. And I should know a thing or two about Mediterranean cuisine having grew up in, in that part of the world. That’s really such a wonderful takeaway. The restaurant itself, the outlet itself was designed by a roco and they really captured the essence of the beach, but also some of the aspects of that Mediterranean design that you would kind of imagine if you were to step into a restaurant in Egypt, for example. Or something like that. So when you take the design, you take the beverage, and then you take the flavorness and execution of the food, and you sprinkle it with Chef Mina’s love and passion. You just really can’t go wrong.
Ryan Embree:
This is why I love this series so much, Younes, because it, everything in these types of hotels are so purposeful from the design to the, the programming like you were talking about. And high praise is when you can come out of a food and beverage outlet and say the term authentic. That is what we are craving right now in a world that unfortunately, you know, AI is, we love it, technology is great, but it is also causing some inauthenticity. And so when people see authentic, they feel authentic, that little piece of home. And so really, really eager, excited. Thank you for sharing that. You’ve done a couple interviews that I’ve followed leading up to this grand opening and one recent interview you said, we’re eager to share this incredibly special property with the world and welcome guests to indulge in a modern evolution of traditional luxury. And that was the part that really stuck out to me, that modern evolution of traditional luxury. Can you speak what that means to you and how you’ve implemented it into the guest experience and operations at the region? Santa Monica Beach?
Younes Atallah :
Yeah, absolutely. This is what I love about these podcasts subtypes, that it’s, it becomes so natural because we did not rehearse this. And, and you just kind of gave me a perfect segue talking about AI and authenticity. I think, and I believe that these days are very dependent on technology. No one can argue that, obviously, whether it’s with our phones or whether it’s with but inherently, especially in for a luxury traveler, we still want to have those authentic moments with other humans. Technology, AI has to be in the background. It has to make things easier. It doesn’t have to be in the forefront. You know, it has to create conveniences, not stresses. You know, sometimes you are, you know, you’re trying to order something and there’s 16 buttons to push and there’s stand in this line and then pick up in this line and then do this, and you’re just like, oh my God, I just want a coffee.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah. Trust me, I’ve been in front of my hotel door trying to open with that remote key, right. Which was so convenient, and now all of a sudden it’s not working for me.
Younes Atallah :
No, exactly. Absolutely. So it’s really kind of understanding what the other thing is, the word luxury has evolved tremendously even in the time that I’ve beendoing this. And then more recently, even in the last 5-10 years, really, I think the pandemic has allowed a lot of people to experience luxury and want to experience luxury in a different way. And it’s no longer pinky out and tea with the Queen type of it still exists, and it’s still wonderful. It’s no longer just that. And with Regent, we take a lot of pride in saying that the way that we behave and the way that we execute on luxury is in a modern way, it’s modern luxury. It’s bespoke, it’s really not a one size fits all. You know, I mean, when you look at statistics and studies that tell you that Gen Z they’re going to be the biggest spenders on luxury in the next X number of years, well, you gotta pay attention because you can’t continue to cater to not even their parents, but their grandparents, which I think is the more traditional way.
Ryan Embree:
No, you’re, you’re absolutely right. And to your point about the AI and technology and we talked about this at the top of the episode of what you’re trying to cultivate over there at the Regent Santa Monica Beach, as you said, you wanna remove the noise, the outside noise. And sometimes that can be physical noise, and sometimes that can be digital noise. And sometimes when you elevate guests and customers above that digital noise, sometimes that’s when the authenticity really blooms and you create some really memorable experiences there. Now, all that to say we are a digital marketing podcast. And so I’m gonna talk about a little digital because as you mentioned, I mean Gen Z, and sometimes this is good and sometimes this helps. I mean, this was something that 20-30 years ago in hospitality, when you’d introduce a new property or brand like this, you didn’t have the benefits of social media or online digital marketing like you do today. And it can help propel and accelerate the pace. I look at your Instagram, I follow your Instagram, follow your social media. You guys already have 3000 followers on social media and you haven’t even opened, had that first guess yet. And that can do a lot of things for a property. And we talked about that. So how have you used social media or digital marketing to introduce the new Regent Santa Monica Beach to travelers?
Younes Atallah :
I mean, it goes without saying that it was probably one of the very first things that we did was to make sure that our handles were correct and we had the right ones and go through that process, both Instagram and Facebook. You know, the two big powerhouses that we’ve leaned into at the moment. It’s been incredibly instrumental for us to showcase the brand’s identity as the big brand, but also also the resort itself. We’ve been really sort of teasing for the last year and a half because to your point, we want to create excitement and that I want more so that you can continue to come back and see what we have coming. Social media is a way to, for a new brand, is to share really a visual story of what guests can anticipate when they arrive, whether it’s teasing through looking at the views or certain angles of the accommodation or the restaurant. You know, that being said, as our audience continues to grow across the various platforms, there’s gonna be a lot more to share. You know, you start having more user generated content, you start having more actual photography and more relatable programming that that is being executed. And that’s really what people want to dream. And social media, Instagram especially allows us to do that. It allows us to dream. I mean I’ll share something personal. I booked a trip for a year from now to somewhere that I’ve never been. And literally it’s like in August of next year, and I’m already looking at, oh my God, what am I gonna do? Oh my God, look at this. Oh my God, I wanted to, you know, heart this and favorite this and all of that because I’m already dreaming about it. And that’s really what people that’s the sense that we want people to feel before they get here.
Ryan Embree:
Absolutely. And building anticipation, setting expectations. I love the way that you that you’ve used social media over there as a way to tease, we talk about it all the time, but that is a great strategy. It wasn’t just to throw everything out there give everyone, you wanna build that excitement, build that anticipation just like you’re doing for your own personal trip. And we continue to do so. Very cool to see. We’ll continue to follow. We’re getting closer to the end, but wanna do some rapid fire questions. This is always something we do for the Spotlight series to get to know you and the region. Santa Monica Beach a little bit better. Best view at the property?
Younes Atallah :
It’s the ocean front rooms with a fire pit and a big terrace.
Ryan Embree:
Alright. Yeah. You can’t really argue with that one there. Yeah, fun fact about the property. I know you have already shared a couple, but any any fun facts?
Younes Atallah :
Funnest fact is our atrium suite used to be open air. It actually was two stories of nothing, two floors worth of literally air that we have now built into a two bedroom, two bathroom suite.
Ryan Embree:
Whoa. I think that was probably some fun blueprinting and construction there for that. Most anticipated dish at the property? You mentioned you were at Orla in Vegas. Have you had the chance to try anything over there?
Younes Atallah :
I have. I will tell you, I’m gonna go with my favorite, which are the lamb chops, the harissa grilled lamb chops. They’re pretty delicious. I’m not gonna lie.
Ryan Embree:
And then finally favorite piece of art at the property?
Younes Atallah :
That’s, that’s kind of an easy one. I’m gonna say probably an 800, maybe a 1000 square foot area in the restaurant. And the floor is a handcrafted mosaic piece of art, an ocean scene with an octopus being kind of the highlight of it that was constructed by 15 artisans in Italy and shipped to Santa Monica in pieces. And witnessing it being put together by hand was awesome. I didn’t my video, but then seeing it being put together on the floor has just been amazing. I can’t wait for people to see that something else.
Ryan Embree:
That’s so cool. Again, just to put this in perspective, if you’ve been counting or playing bingo at home, we’ve talked about artists, chefs, celebrities, designers, all a part of this, and we’re just talking about one property. So Absolutely fantastic. You know, I’ve, I’ve had the pleasure of, of interviewing a few GMs and leaders of brand new, new properties or introductions to properties like the region as they prepare for travelers for the first time. And you kind of walked us through today, but how you want people to feel as they walk in. Give me a sense of what you want travelers to feel as they check out. What, what is that as gm do you want them to say about their stay at the region, Santa Monica Beach?
Younes Atallah :
I want them to say that they want more. I think that’s, that’s the first thing I would want them to feel is when do I get to come back? I think we all hopefully have had chances, whether it’s at hotels, destinations, restaurants, any kind of experience to say, I can’t wait to go back. And so if someone says, if a guest says, I can’t wait to go back, I’ve done my job, my team’s done their job, we’ve arrived. Right? We’ve accomplished what we need to. And I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. We’re in the business of creating raving fans. We want people to our guests to become our biggest ambassadors. And you kind of touched this on this a little bit earlier. I can say whatever I want about myself, we can say whatever we want about our hotel, but until people, until others are really talking about us and are our ambassadors, that’s what we really would love to have happen.
Ryan Embree:
Well, from today’s episode I certainly, do not see that being a problem for your property and your team over there. Younes, thank you so much for joining me. We covered a lot. Any final thoughts before we wrap up today?
Younes Atallah :
You know, again, open invitation. Please come to Santa Monica, please come visit us. We’ve got an amazing destination. I’m incredibly passionate about this city. I’ve been coming here for many years before I moved here. It’s a wonderful place to come and visit year round. We’re opening here in just a few weeks, just under a month from now. And have an amazing introductory offer for our guests, sort of our opening offer that will be, available really for anyone who wants to book from now through the beginning of next year, like now, I encourage on, RegentSantaMonicaBeach.com. Follow us.
Ryan Embree:
There you go. It’s spirit of the today’s episode. Well, Younes thank you. I encourage all the listeners and audience, check out the Regent Santa Monica Beach. A wonderful addition to our incredible hospitality industry we have here. We’re very excited. Be sure to follow and hear all of those ambassadors praising their experience, that they had there. So congratulations to you and your team. Younes we will look for those doors to be open. Just a couple of short weeks. I’m sure you cannot wait to see those first guests arrive on property.
Younes Atallah :
That’s right, that’s right. Thank you, Ryan, for the opportunity.
Ryan Embree:
Thank you so much and we’ll talk to you next time. To join our loyalty program be sure to subscribe and give us a five star rating on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.
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27min
September 17, 2024 147 – The Hospitality Show 2024 Preview
Check out the latest Suite Spot episode where President – Hospitality, Travel, & Wellness at Questex, Alexi Khajavi, sits down on the podcast to discuss the highly anticipated Hospitality Show 2024 in San Antonio, Texas!
This special episode will cover what attendees can expect this year from the event, some urgent issues facing the hospitality industry, and how this event is bringing all the major players of hospitality together in one room.
Episode Transcript
Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio.
Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, as always, Ryan Embree. Thank you so much for joining me today. We have another incredible episode continuing our TMG Hospitality Trailblazers series, but we have an original TMG Hospitality Trailblazers, one of the first. Joining me again for the second time. Alexi Khajavi, President, Hospitality Travel and Wellness at Questex. Alexi, thank you so much for joining me once again on the Suite Spot.
Alexi Khajavi :
Great to see you, Ryan.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, we’ve got a lot to cover. Lots change since we spoke just last year. We’ve got a very fast moving industry with travel, a lot of positive changes, and we’re gonna get to some of those a little bit later. But with this being the second time, we kicked off last episode talking about your hospitality and travel journey and what led you to Questex, but I wanna talk about mentor, right? We’re still kind of combating this staffing shortage right now, and we wanna talk about maybe some of the mentors or influences in your career, and then speak to maybe the importance of mentors right now as we try to combat this staffing shortage, especially in an industry like hospitality.
Alexi Khajavi :
Yeah. I would love to. It’s an important topic.
Ryan Embree:
You wanna go ahead and share some of maybe the mentors in your hospitality career, or influences in your career?
Alexi Khajavi :
Yeah, you know, I’ve had a really diverse career in travel and hospitality. I mean, it started out in San Francisco in the sort of the “.com” era of 1997 to, you know, 2001, 2002. And I had the fortune of joining an early stage OTA. There was three OTAs that launched ironically in 1997. One was booking.com and one was Expedia. And I joined the third one.
Ryan Embree:
And I think that’s where mentorship comes in, right? Is you can show a story to this younger generation of hospitality professionals and say, this is what a career could look like in hospitality 5, 10, 15, sometimes 25 plus years down the line, right? And, and there’s a path there, and it’s gonna also fall on our shoulders to make sure that there is a clear path there, because that’s what this younger generation or maybe even pools that we haven’t explored before, and going to them and saying, this is what hospitality looks like. This is what a career here is. And that’s why, again, I call on our audience. You might not think of yourself as a mentor, but there is someone, and, you know, doing 20 plus of these interviews with industry leaders in this TMG hospitality trailblazer series, one of the consistent thing other than saying, “Hey, I didn’t think I’d be in hospitality”, is there was an impactful mentor a part of their journey that led them to where they are. So you could have a severe impact on someone’s professional and just growth in general as a person. So thank you for sharing that. Another topic we covered last year around this time was the continued resurgence of business and group travel. Every post I see on LinkedIn or social media from Questex, it’s announcing another record breaking attendance at your events that your amazing events that you guys put on. So what’s your feeling on group travel, business travel? You can continue, it’s still bullish on it, still continuing to see this, and maybe how has it changed, right? The sentiment, the energy at these events changed then maybe five years ago, pre covid?
Alexi Khajavi :
Well, first of all, group and corporate travel is back, and it’s been back, it’s been somewhat, I think overshadowed by just the incredible growth on the leisure side, right? So, travel for recreation or for holiday that has come back, frankly quicker than anybody thought it would. I mean, people were traveling in the summer of 2020, and it’s just continued to soar as more and more markets open up. Certainly domestically in the US 2021 and 2022 were record breaking years. And then 2023 last summer, you know, Europe really felt the return particularly of the US traveler still incredibly, Asia is not back either from a leisure or a corporate side, meaning outbound from Asia. But corporate and groups have been really performing incredibly well. And they continue to, as we’ve seen in some markets, leisure has started to taper off and to, uh, sort of, uh, flatten in some markets, not down, but certainly sort of coming back down to sort of smaller growth year over year.
Ryan Embree:
It’s hard to follow a Taylor Swift concert tour around the country.
Alexi Khajavi :
That did have a direct impact on RevPAR, as we saw some from some of the industry data, which is incredible in and of itself, and could warrant a show on its own that one individual drives an entire market’s RevPAR. So beyond Taylor Swift, and thank God we have Taylor in our industry, just speaking from what we see, we have seen both incredible pockets of high demand and high growth. And then we’ve seen pockets, where it’s been a little bit more challenging. Life sciences and healthcare and technology were absolutely booming from 2020 on through about 2022 & 2023. Life sciences and healthcare continue to do very well. And I’m, again, just speaking from a Questex perspective. Of the markets that we serve, technology has been frankly challenged job losses, you know, challenge in terms of stock prices, but also market demand. I mean, AI, as we have seen is an incredible trend and will change, our lives, but also the trajectory of those companies. But it hasn’t translated into profits for those companies yet. And so our events in those markets are a bit more, I would say normal, right? So, you know, still growing, but not seeing the explosive growth that we’re seeing in life sciences and healthcare. The markets that I have the privilege of running hospitality, travel and wellness, really since about 2021, 2022, have been on an explosive growth. And we returned back to really kind of 2019 levels, which is normal if you will, as early as in some cases, 2021. But certainly by 2022, we were higher than 2019 levels in all of those markets. One we’re fortunate in that each of those markets in our portfolio, in each of those markets has both events and media. And so focusing just on the events side, to your question, where it is a market leader, so it is the CES of that industry, you know, the consumer electronic show in Vegas. So it is a tier one or a tier two, so it is a must attend event. It’s already in people’s calendars, it’s already in people’s budgets. And so it just benefits off of being sort of built within the fabric of that sector. So we’re certainly benefiting from that. And as more people, there have been a flight to quality versus quantity. What we’ve seen to answer your second part of that question, is that because of the work from home or the hybrid working, so for example, today I am working from home, but some cases people are working from home full-time, or in many cases we’re seeing this sort of hybrid element, which means not everybody is in the office at the same time. Typically, the purpose that we serve as an information services company is we inform and we connect buyers and sellers in the five markets that we serve. Well, what we’ve seen is that our events have not only become platforms for connecting those buyers and sellers, but they’ve become platforms for connecting our own customers. Typically, an exhibitor or a sponsor that was coming to one of our events to meet clients that we would bring to that event, yes, they’re still coming for that. And yes, corporate travel’s absolutely rebounding because of that very same premise. I mean, if you just found out your competitor flew to Dallas to meet your top account, you better get on that plane and get to Dallas. And that is absolutely, zoom is great, this is incredible. It’s very practical. It does not build business. It does not strengthen, share of wallet, and it does not drive the bottom line. At the end of the day, you’ve got to build those relationships, and those relationships are built in human to human touch. So corporate travel is definitely benefiting from that. But we are seeing more and more this theme and this enthusiasm around bring the team, which is actually one of the mottos around the Hospitality Show. Which you joined us last year in Las Vegas, and we’re seeing our customers bring their team together. So using our event platforms as the opportunity to not just meet their clients and new clients, but meet each other. And so conduct their own incentive meetings or their own strategic meetings or their own cultural touch points around our own events. This effective model of sort of treating it as a multi-sided platform that we don’t just meet our clients, but we meet each other from a company perspective. It’s really interesting and we see a lot of opportunity for us to deliver more value to our communities and the sectors that we serve in that trend.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, I absolutely love that. I think it’s a win-win when you bring your team, right? Because not only are they able to participate in things like, if you’re a supplier exhibitor, but you also get some incredible insights that we’re gonna talk about some for some industry experts and leaders, and then you get that connection, right? And that’s where I was trying to pinpoint, because I feel like the events that I’ve been to post Covid, there’s a different energy, and I think you might have hit the nail on the head about talking about how the way we work now with it being hybrid or sometimes just working from home constantly, there just seems like there’s an energy to these events that wasn’t there. And, and it’s probably because what you’ve said, those misconnections of seeing everyone in the office every single day, now all of a sudden you’re traveling out for work, you get to see industry leaders, you get to connect with your teammates, exhibitors, suppliers, that energy and that connection is palpable. And again, speaking from personal experience at the Hospitality Show last year, which we’re gonna talk about. But before we get into that, I wanna talk about a topic that’s always brought up, no matter what event you go to technology, right? It’s certainly risen to the top of these agendas and seminar programs at these shows. Where do you see, I’m gonna put you on the spot here. I want to get your opinion. Where do you see the biggest opportunity for travel in its leveraging technology? Is it on the guest and experienced consumer side, or is it on the professional side, operations side to help maybe with combat staffing challenges and things? Where do you see the biggest opportunity right now?
Alexi Khajavi :
That’s a great question, and I’m not going to cop out by saying both, but I’ll also step back and give a broader answer for a second. One, our transportation infrastructure is in disarray, whether that be the air control towers that helps power our airline, our aviation industry which is partly due to a labor issue as well, but also our visa and our immigration. I mean, to wait four years for a visa, and then when you just got off, after waiting four years and you just got off an 18 hour flight and you wait four hours to get through immigration, you’re not coming back to the US. You know, and other countries are competing for those same travelers, and they’re expediting those processes at every touch point. The visa maybe not the transportation, but you know, the wait times to get into the country. So technology, and look, let’s face it, most of the border patrol agents, that we’re bringing into that, that field are going at down to the southern border. I mean, that’s just where the, based off of the immigration and and so forth, that’s where they’re being sent, not to JFK, not to LAX, not to Atlanta. So technology is really the solution there, and biometrics, which we know works, or the global entry, which we know works that really needs to be improved because we are competing for travelers. I mean, I know that sounds odd, and I know that we’ve been very bullish and very confident that, hey, everybody wants to come to the US, that’s true. but a lot of people wanna go to France, and a lot of people wanna go to Spain, and a lot of people wanna go to Cambodia and other places around the world. And those countries are really improving their infrastructure, IE their technology in order to facilitate a better visa traveler entry and reentry experience. That’s one. And that affects us all. I know that, whether it’s in the hotel industry or the events in industry, we can sort of think about that as a tangential part of the ecosystem, but has a direct relationship. I mean, we are in markets that we need travelers and business people from Asia, from the Middle East, from Europe, from South America, from Central America. And if they can’t get here, then that is a, a real great on our ability to grow and our ability to sell hotel rooms and our ability to, to drive the industry forward. So that’s a real problem. To answer your question a little bit closer to home, is it guest facing or is it on the business side? Honestly, I think it’s on the business side, because the reality is, is that a tech enabled business ultimately provides the ability for us to deliver a more human powered experience. So I don’t think that that guests are traveling and making travel decisions because your app is better than their app, or your keyless entry is better than my keyless entry. Is it important? Yeah. But it’s really those intangible experiences that are human powered experiences, that is what travel and hospitality is all about. And really where I see technology having an indelible impact on our industry is when you’re tech enabled, it actually frees up time for your people to do other tasks. And if we think about what drives real enterprise value in hospitality, at least, and travel for that matter, it’s about someone having a human powered experience that is personalized, that’s authentic, that’s sincere. And they can only do that within the infrastructure if AI or tech in general is powering the infrastructure of that organization, the procurement, the ordering, the planning KPIs, the logistics, the data, manipulation. There’s a lot of stuff that tech obviously can play a part in. So I think that, not to say that, it’s a zero sum game, you can do both. And in fact, we have to do both. But tech has largely been a vendor to hospitality. It’s not been a strategic tool to drive change, but drive strategy, and to enable more human powered experiences in the industry. And I think we really, we are at a fulcrum point in the industry where CIOs or CTOs are at the executive board table, they are making decisions reporting directly to the CEO and that is a wholesale change in the industry. And we have hundreds, if not thousands of really strategic creative suppliers in tech that are running all throughout the various touch points back of house, front of house. It’s a great moment in the industry. We’re not there yet. But, again, to answer your question, I could say both, but I would say if you had to put it somewhere back of house, because it will free up your front of house to really deliver those truly memorable experiences for life.
Ryan Embree:
Well, we’ve got a generation that’s on the way up and coming into our industry that’s gonna expect those things. And I heard this the other day, which I thought was absolutely brilliant talking about it, what an opportunity for the industry when we have new people, maybe outside of hospitality coming in to introduce some of these new technology. Because at the time, the way I used to check in guests is a whole heck of a lot different than it is today. And sometimes they’re digitally checking in themselves. So if you have this new cohort of employees, it’s gonna be easier to train than maybe the, the hospitality veteran that’s been doing it this way their entire 20 or 30 year career. So I definitely think it’s an opportunity, I guess if there’s any silver lining maybe with this staffing shortage, we are having new people come in, new voices, and they’re gonna tell you exactly what they want, where the inefficiencies are. And hopefully, like you said, leadership and travel kind of listens to that feedback and acts upon it. And that’s how change happens. So as you know, this is a digital marketing podcast at heart, even though we talk about other subjects, but we always are trying to educate hoteliers, just travel industry really in general, how important things like social media, having a strong digital presences online, we know your background, you have a strong background in marketing. Can you just speak to, give some advice maybe to our audience on, or preach maybe why it is just so critical, especially today to have that social media presence or online reputation?
Alexi Khajavi :
Yeah, I mean, you’re right. I mean I’ve worked in advertising and creative agencies and been in sales and marketing, you know, the majority of my career. I mean, look, when we first got started, or I first got started for that matter, 25 years ago. I mean, there was five channels you could choose from, right? From marketing. And it was, it was as Hal days, I mean, you still didn’t know it was 50% of your advertising was working, but you knew it was working, right? And so, but you only had five channels to manage. Today you’ve got 500 channels to manage. So I really feel for marketers these days. I mean, I feel for them from a sort of a, it’s a difficult environment, but it’s also a really exciting environment. The one channel that is unquestionably critical to making and influencing travel decisions is social media. There’s no question that when you look at the demographics of who makes travel decisions, let’s separate leisure from corporate, or groups, but focusing on leisure, it’s typically the wife and increasingly the kids. I mean, it is in my family. I mean, my say is very minimal. It’s probably based off of what airline we’re gonna fly because I’ve got points. So where we go when we go and what we do is largely driven by, by the wife, spouse, and the kids. And increasingly kids are making purchasing decisions and influencing purchasing decisions based off of what they see on social media. So a common question in the Casa de khajavi is, what are your top five destinations you’d love to go to? And we’re a traveling family. All of that’s influenced by Instagram and by social media. So the ability to not only influence and really kind of manage all the way through that buyer’s journey. So dream, plan, purchase, experience, share, and then back around again, that is the buyer’s journey in travel and social media not only is a massive part of that because you’re posting whilst you’re on vacation, but it’s influencing the dream stage. It’s influencing the plan stage. You can even buy now through some of these social media channels. You can experience it hence the authenticity and the human power. Fortunately, I don’t think, your Apple goggles or your Oculus will replace that for some it will. I don’t get that. So social media is, um, is a critical part of the buyer’s journey, and that’s where marketers are trying to enter themselves, their brands, their products, into that buyer’s journey. And to be able to do it on one channel throughout that buyer’s journey, for the most part, is an incredible power that social media holds. The challenge with it is that it, there’s so much noise in these channels, and so it doesn’t replace the need one to be in other channels. It also really puts the onus on brands to try and capture first party data, as we’ve seen, if you don’t own your own customer, then somebody else does. And that’s where, again, we at Questex feel so privileged. I mean, we publish every day. We’ve got 5 million records across the five markets that we work in. And being able to know what John Doe reads when he reads it, what are the things that he’s searching for, and piece together a strategy around that is really what all brands should be doing. And again, that part of that can be done on social media, and part of that can be done through your website, through content marketing and even through advertising. So all of it still matters. It’s just where I think we’re at is that I see a lot of marketers these days, again, and it goes back to your question, Ryan, about labor. I see a lot of leadership in marketing that is still using a marketing playbook from 2002. And it’s not only ineffective in driving the business goals forward in achieving the KPIs of that business, but I think it’s, it’s frankly turning off a lot of these younger smart potential creative marketers that come in and go, this is not how I engage with brands, and these are not the channels that I believe in or that I’m in. And I think we’ve, when that shoe drops and this, some of this generation of, of marketing leadership exits, there’s gonna be a dynamic shift in the marketplace. And I think that’s a really interesting, we’re at this really interesting moment right now. And ironically not to throw too many elements into it, but I think it’s really interesting is that you’re starting to see CIOs or CTOs, in some cases, even in hospitality, take over the marketing function. We saw it at Wyndham where the CTO took over from the CMO, and it’s because you’ve got this massive blend of MarTech with marketing, with tech to create MarTech. And that, I don’t know how that plays out because despite MarTech and all of the marketing technology channels that you can use, and you need to be a data scientist, and you need to know data, you still need a strong brand. It doesn’t replace the importance of brand. A brand is a promise. And whether that’s in social media or that’s in a full page ad in the New York Times, if you don’t have a brand, it’s gonna cost you a lot of money to try and move that needle. But if you have a strong brand, but you don’t tactically execute well, it’s also very ineffective. And we’re seeing kind of both right now. So there’s just a lot of noise and transformation in the system, and I don’t think that’s played its course yet, but I think we’ll see that in the next five years.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, it’s super interesting to see how these big brands deal with this. Again, keep talking about this next generation coming up. You think about, especially, starting from I’ve got a couple toddlers myself, they’re seeing more ads than we’ve ever consumed by the age that they have purchasing power. So they will have seen, I mean, you think about when the only ads we might’ve seen might’ve been on the tv, talk about YouTube, talk about social media. They are seeing ads constantly all over the place in this visual video form. So if your content is not attractive, engaging to them, they will ignore it very, very quickly. And you have to be, have your ear to the floor to see if they’re listening and what they’re telling you, because I think you are absolutely right, Alexi, you look at some of that data, they will tell you exactly what they’re engaging with, and it’s all in the data, but you gotta be able to keep your ear to the floor and listen and, and look for those patterns and trends. So let’s dive and get into the Hospitality Show, right? This is also talking about this incredible event. I do not envy you in having to top what you did last year, but looking at the agenda, looking at the press releases, some of the speakers events that are gonna happen there, I’m very excited about this. So talk to us a little bit about what attendees can expect for the 2024 Hospitality Show.
Alexi Khajavi :
Yeah. Year one was top five launch around the world in terms of new launches. It just got nominated for the best new show in 2023 by Trade Show Executive. So we’re very proud of that with our partners, AHLA, but more importantly than the accolades and the success of year one is the purpose of the hospitality show. We launched it with our partners, the American Hotel and Lodging Association, because running hotels and all of the amenities, whether that be the spa, food and beverage, the gym within a hotels is becoming much more complex and much more challenging. And despite the fact that, as we said a few moments ago, we’ve been operating in this really growing top line, RevPAR, ADRs, occupancy coming along with it, environment, profit margins have been challenged. And that’s because one inflation labor and then just the complexity, running all of that under one roof and paying for the utilities and all that, it is really, really challenging. You have issues like insurance. You’re seeing investors sell portfolios of hotels, not because they’re not performing well, but because the insurance premiums from climate change largely is making it unsustainable. Forgive the pun, to run those hotels profitably. So we’ve got this really challenging environment in which owners of which own a small branded or independent hotel in on the side of the road are challenged, as well as some of the largest REITs and private equity and sovereign wealth funds that own blocks of hotels around the world. So that’s why we launched the Hospitality Show, because there wasn’t one show that brought the entire industry together to look at all of the levers for growth with a focus on profitability and optimization of hotel assets. And that can be revenue and that can be costs. And it can be all of the things in between on that classic P&I. So this year we are seeing incredible growth. I’m really pleased to say, and I’m really, the teams at Questex and the teams at AHLA, I mean, they are doing yeoman’s work. They’re doing an incredible job of working with our advisory board, which contains some of the sharpest minds across the industry. Owners like Mitch Patel, Vinne Patel, big funds like M-C-R-K-S-L, capital operators, like as I said, Scott Strickland from Wyndham Asset Managers like Chad Sorenson, and then suppliers from Oracle to Honeywell to Encore to Worldview. So I mean, this is like, this is the ecosystem that really is, why this is AHLA’s show as much as it is ours, because it is truly where we’re collecting the industry. So this year, San Antonio, October 28th to October 30th, and we’re projecting over 5,000 attendees. We’ve expanded our general manager or our GM awards. That was one of the sort of most exciting, enthusiastic parts of last year to truly celebrate the backbone of our industry those GMs that will be followed by the age and a GM summit, which is content specifically tailored for GMs to discover those innovative ways, again, to drive profitability at their properties. The expo floor, we had so many, we had over 300 exhibitors last year. Were now over 400 exhibitors this year. So that’s grown as well. We’ve got interactive showcases on the show floor for our attendees. So the smart outdoors, the outdoor sort of element really became kind of almost an accelerant from Covid, and it’s really continued. So how do you activate those areas outdoors to make them one, you know, enjoyable, but second tournament into profit centers, interim hotel entertainment sponsored by DirecTV. And then also how do we activate the lobbies with our meet me in the lobby activation. We’ve got a lenders alley as we know, debt has been expensive in this environment, but it’s critical to the capital stack for hotel owners. So that’s designed specifically for our owners that are attending, again, per that advisory board feedback that we’ve got on helping owners find the right debt partners. We’re also now partnering with Clean the World, which is our partners on our sustainability initiative. And that’s helping our attendees build these hygiene kits made from recycled soap, donated to a local homeless shelter. And all that comes from hotels. So, last year I think we built 500 kits and our goal this year is a thousand. So a sustainability and a goodwill component as always. I mean, this is part of the fabric of our industry. And then the networking we’ve got, last year, I think everyone came out of Vegas saying we had the best party that the industry has ever seen, sort of a James Bond theme, which was very popular. This year we’re coming back with a block party on the river walk, a VIP owner’s reception. And then DirecTV is back with that opening reception this year at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts in San Antonio, which is a beautiful venue. And they’ve got a surprise announcement coming up. I won’t steal their thunder on that. So, really there’s a lot of excitement on the expo floor in the networking, just in the leadership that that attends. But also the educational sessions are some of the best in the industry. I mean, we’ve got marquee speakers this year from Jose Andress, which is, you know, world Kitchen and the world famous chef to Aaron Andrews and many others that are on our website. And we continue to announce, so senior leadership as well as CEOs from the companies, which are really dealing with some of the biggest issues facing not just the industry, but the global and the US economy. It is an election year, so there’s a lot of stuff going on in the space. And it should just be, again, most industries have their marquee event, whether it be CES in Las Vegas, or you know, the concrete show for the construction industry or the automotive show. Hospitality hasn’t had its own show. And that’s why, again, it’s so important for the industry to be there. And it’s important for us to be able to learn, network and be inspired around how do we drive profits and a better marketplace and industry for hotel owners, operators and suppliers.
Ryan Embree:
Well, you got me fired up about this year’s show. That’s for sure. And I think I can say this ’cause I am a Texan, but everything’s bigger in Texas, Hospitality Show, right? We’re excited to hear it, Alexi. And I love the education. It’s so insightful, so informative, so many great takeaways. I mean, we dedicate a whole episode after the hospitality show to talk about the takeaways, the trends, the patterns, things that we’re hearing. But I wanna focus in on the networking. ’cause you were here at the ground floor when this thing was built last year, and you have a really amazing chance opportunity to network at the hospitality show. And I wanna know kind of the thought process behind the thinking and why it was such a priority to make sure that there were these networking opportunities for hospitality professionals at this show.
Alexi Khajavi :
Well, because it is a people powered industry, I mean, at the end of the day, with all the infrastructure and all the technology there are that are infinitely more important to us, deals are done based off the relationships we have. I mean, that’s just this industry and we’re not gonna change it. In fact, we celebrate it and we build momentum into those relationships. So, that’s really a core component of the hospitality show is to continue to foster those relationships, bring the right buyers and sellers there. And we’re using intelligent meetings to connect specific buyers and sellers that are selling a product versus looking for that same product. But the other really exciting thing about the hospitality show is the extemporaneous or spontaneous connections that are made. And just off the top of my head, somewhat anecdotal, but you know, last year I remember walking through the show floor and I saw Mark Hian, walking around with Kevin Carey, CEO of AHLA. And you know, here you have one of the CEOs of the largest hotel companies in the world going around booth to booth and talking to owners and talking to suppliers and trying to understand what is the thinking and what is the purpose, various products or services that were there. And it wasn’t just Mark who’s, you know, one of the nicest guys in the business. It was also Jeff Baloti was front row of our GM awards and GM Summit and sitting there clapping vibrantly. Yeah, it was so cool to see, again, the CEO of the largest franchise company in the industry celebrating GMs of other brands properties because again, this is the bedrock. So that really is, and it’s not just those two, but it was many, many others which I can. And so it was that real opportunity where the industry, which is, it’s one of the most fragmented industries in the world. So it is a challenge sometimes. And that’s again, that is the purpose of the Hospitality Show. We’ve got investment shows. We have NYU, we have IHIF in in Europe, we’ve got Asia, we’ve got Alice in Lodging Conference and Hunter, great shows. We’ve got the design shows, BDNY, the hospitality design. We’ve got operational shows, we’ve got law, hospitality, law shows. So, there’s plenty of these events in the industry, including our own, but none of them brought the ecosystem together and in order to really understand, but more importantly solve the challenges that we have as an industry, the only way to do that is to do it as one industry, as one voice. And so the privilege, and we really see it as a privilege of being able to do that with our partners, AHLA and bring this industry together from the senior leadership of some of the largest hotel companies or suppliers with a single owner or a new provider to the space is just a, it’s a real honor, but it is critical to the overall success of hospitality in the hotel industry. And therefore I really encourage everyone to make that trip. It’s good for your business, it’s good for your career, but more importantly, it’s good for the industry. And if we’re all together on this, then we will advance our needs and we’ll continue to see the industry grow.
Ryan Embree:
It is really, again, personal experience. It is really inspiring and cool to see rival brands rally around really important topics, human trafficking, that was still an issue that we’re battling right now. But to see everyone in lockstep together, and rallying around a cause like that, sustainability, another one to see that it’s very inspirational. You’re right, Alexi. And it is great for our industry. It gives you that hope that our industry is moving in the right direction. So, very, very cool. So with this being the second year, I’m sure you have some goals after year one, but when all said and done, that final attendee walks outta the Hospitality Show, what’s that one thing, that one goal where you can sit back and say, mission accomplished, second year, 2024 hospitality show was a success?
Alexi Khajavi :
Well, first of all, there’s a cold beer in my hand.
Ryan Embree:
. Oh, I’m sure, I’m sure.
Alexi Khajavi :
It really, I mean, the first thing is just looking around at the team and really feeling a sense of accomplishment for what we’ve done. And we truly, truly are immersed in this industry, and we’re deeply connected with our own personal relationships as well as just our professional relationships in the space. We hear a lot of feedback and some of it glowing and some of it all around how to make it better. But it’s a symbiotic relationship where our customers and our attendees are that are there, they’re invested in it, right? They’ve spent their time, their money, their resources. So we’re in it together. And there is an accretive or an iterative process to make it better. And we get the feedback and we work with our advisory boards, and it’s, I mean, we work on this thing 365 days a year. I mean, there are dedicated resources that work on this show, 365 days a year, that’s all they think about. But in that moment where, the last attendee walks out and the lights are going down, it really is just looking around at the team and the folks that made it happen, which are hand on heart. It’s not me. It’s, it’s a lot of people that are doing much more work and better work than than I could ever do. And it’s seeing that gratitude in being able to do something that’s impactful in an industry that we love, that’s a real gift. And it’s a real pleasure to have that opportunity. And we don’t forget that. So that’s a real nice thing. Yeah.
Ryan Embree:
And then I’m sure right shortly after it, its start planning for the next year, but maybe you could take that moment to enjoy it.
Alexi Khajavi :
That’s what the beer’s for.
Ryan Embree:
Exactly, exactly. Well, as we wrap up today, Alexi, in our industry, we’re always trying to predict the future, right? Just a little bit. We’re looking at occupancy, we’re looking at airlines, we’re looking at how many seats filled up, you know, 60, 90 days from now. So we’re at a really unique time right now. We’ve got a lot of external factors. You mentioned some inflation interest rates, rising construction costs. And by the way, we’ve got an election coming up. What’s your kind of feeling sentiment on the outlook of our industry over the next couple years?
Alexi Khajavi :
I’m wildly optimistic. I’m bullish all the way on travel and hospitality. I do think, however, that the industry needs to look at its carrying capacity to demand, particularly in those areas of high demand or sensitive biodiverse environments, whether it’s Venice or Paris or, you know, Ancor Watt. We haven’t even gotten back to global outbound travel in 2019 levels. And we’re, again, seeing destinations really struggle with the impact of tourism and hospitality. And so we are going to have to really get some critical thinking around that. And it will need to be managed. I mean, we need to manage demand. And I know that sounds strange because we typically focus on managing capacity and letting the demand just hopefully go and rise, rise, rise. But we’re gonna have to look at that demand and manage that demand more effectively. Because look, the new generations are absolutely looking at are completely invested in the experience economy. Tourism and hospitality will continue to grow, whether it’s in the Western world where it’s experiences over things. You’re seeing it, the data does not lie. They don’t want to own a car. They want to go travel. Digital nomads aren’t a thing. It is a generation. And that’s not even including new markets opening up again. China is at 10% of its outbound travel to what it was pre pandemic levels, throw that into the mix and then throw more countries, developing countries. I mean, as people, as middle classes emerge, the first thing they want to do is go travel international. It is the way it is, and we’re very blessed by that. But some destinations are struggling with that demand, and we’re gonna need to manage that effectively. And the positive thing is that we can, we can spread that demand out. So it’s not about tapping the brakes, but it’s about managing it effectively. And I think that that’s, uh, that’s something that we can do. We’ve got enough smart people around and the importance on local economies, but the global economy of travel and hospitality, 10% of global economy, 11% global employment, we have to fix it. So, I think that’s I think I’m very confident and very optimistic of our future. We just have to make sure we don’t kill the goose that’s laying the golden egg.
Ryan Embree:
It’s great observation. And I’m sure some of those creative thoughts and ideas we’ll certainly be brewing at the Hospitality Show in San Antonio in October. So, Alexi, thank you so much for joining me once again on the Suite Spot. We’re very happy to announce it. I don’t think we’ve announced it yet on social media or anything that the Suite Spot is returning to the Hospitality Show in 2024 in San Antonio. We are so excited. Hopefully we’ll run into you along with, it’s a who’s who, as you mentioned at that show, so you never know who we’re gonna be running into interviewing, but thank you again for taking the time outta your day, your busy schedule as we lead up to this incredible show to share with us a little bit about your insights and thoughts about this upcoming hospitality show. So thank you, Alexi.
Alexi Khajavi :
No, Ryan, thank you. Thank you for your support and love your show. It’s fabulous, I listen to it all the time, so thanks again.
Alexi Khajavi:
I appreciate it. And thank you all for listening. We’ll talk to you next time on The Suite Spot to join our loyalty program. Be sure to subscribe and give us a five star reading on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host, Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.
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45min
September 04, 2024 146 – Check In with Kevin Carey
Join the Suite Spot in this quarterly series to hear from American Hotel & Lodging Association President & CEO, Kevin Carey, on the state of the hospitality industry and recent developments being made by the AHLA to move the industry forward.
Episode Transcript
Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio.
Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree. As always, thank you for listening. We’ve got a fantastic episode for you today. Another industry check-in with Kevin Carey, interim president and CEO at the American Hotel and Lodging Association. Kevin, thank you so much for taking the time and joining me today.
Kevin Carey :
Hi, Ryan. Good day. It’s good to see you as well.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, we’re excited to have you. You know, we’re gonna jump right into it. We spoke last in the spring season, right before a busy summer travel season. Listen, the travelers have been busy traveling to hotels. Hotels have been busy hosting, but AHLA has been busy as well, advocating for hoteliers and everything that you guys do for our industry. Let’s catch up with some of those big accomplishments and some of the most pressing issues right now. We know we, there’s always those issues that rise up. What are some of those that hotels should be most aware of right now?
Kevin Carey :
Oh as you said, it’s been an incredibly busy period of time. Certainly first and foremost for the industry. The support and the service our member companies provide for guests and the environment they create for our associates and workers is certainly first and foremost, our team here, both in AHLA and, uh, the foundation have been incredibly busy as well. Um, over the first half of the year, it’s been, uh, a, a peak period of activity at a state and local level with state legislators and legislatures in session, uh, and certainly in Washington here, uh, as, uh, the Congress starts to look towards end of the year in the election. So, we’ve been advancing our work, uh, at a state level on short-term rental sets of issues in Washington here around the passage in the house, uh, of the Hotel Fees Transparency Act. Um, and, and also work to ensure that we defeated the, the joint employer rule as well. There’s just a number of areas that we feel proud about as a team and that are really meaningful on behalf of the industry as well.
Ryan Embree:
Absolutely. And but there’s still with all those wins, and congratulations to your team, there’s always work to do as you know, and some of those pressing issues that are at the forefront right now for our hoteliers. What, what are some of those that, again, hoteliers, even though it might be something regional, they still should be aware of because it has, it’s gonna have an impact on the entire industry.
Kevin Carey :
Absolutely. And really to identify two that are certainly getting a lot of our team’s attention and the industry attention. So first and foremost, in New York City, a bill was introduced in the city council several weeks ago, approaching about a month ago at this point. And this bill, the so-called Safe Hotels Act, has been positioned by his proponents as a simple licensing bill. And the bill sponsors have represented that hotels are unregulated, and that there’s an increase in crime occurring in hotels. This bill would do grave damage, not only to the hotel industry, to travelers, to workers, who represent and are employed by the industry and the city economy and the tourism economy itself. So this is bad for everyone. And we’ve been very actively involved in New York several times, meeting with members of the city council organizing the industry to have a strong voice in pushing back, on this ill conceived and flawed legislation. So we’re still working very actively on that and trying to underscore the grave damage that this would represent for the industry.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, and sometimes, you know, these to hoteliers, everyday hoteliers, this might seem like, you know, some complicated issues and things of that nature, but you’ve got some great explainer videos on your social media on AHLA.com where hoteliers can get information to be more educated about this issue because, and show some of the effects that you were talking about there, Kevin, and learn a little bit more about, what this legislation can mean for everyday hoteliers. But, another win that I saw recently trending on ALA’s website was the hospitality law database, which was launched. Could you share with our hotel audience kind of the idea behind this, why there was a need to do this, and how hoteliers everyday hoteliers can leverage this?
Kevin Carey :
Sure. You think about ALA’s role where we promote the industry, we advocate on its behalf, and we also play an important role as the convening entity for the industry and all segments of the industry is how our membership model is designed within that. We provide services around the advocacy that we conduct on behalf of our member companies, whether here in Washington at a state and local level, or even increasingly on cross border set of issues. But we also provide a membership value proposition. And alongside the advocacy work we do, we felt rolling out this hospitality law database would give our members access to the laws that impact their operations on a nationwide basis. So this is a resource for our members. Obviously, it aligns with the work that we do on the advocacy front and felt that this was a natural extension in enhancing our value to our member companies, but also obviously very germane and linked to the work we do on a public policy advocacy basis as well.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, absolutely. And the more educated you can get hotels about, again, the issues that are at the forefront of our industry right now the more support you can get on your end, they’re gonna be able to reach out to their representatives to advocate for themselves as well with the help of such a strong arm, like AHLA. So, fantastic. You’ve talked about the advocacy work, the resource and educational piece that AHLA provides to hoteliers as well, especially around one of the issues we’ve been talking about, which is staffing shortages. And I wanna talk about this. We’ve actually been busy. The Suite Spot has been on a hospitality campus crawl across the state of Florida talking to some of those educators that are getting the next generation of professional hoteliers and hospitality workers out there. But I think one of the ways, small ways we can combat this is creating opportunities like internships, hospitality internships. We have hospitality marketing internship at Travel Media Group. We just wrapped up. I’ve seen a couple social media posts of your summer internship program at AHLA and thanking those interns in the work they’re doing. Can you discuss the importance of creating opportunities like for young professionals to do hospitality and hotel internships and the role of hospitality mentors in our industries could help us combat with staffing shortages?
Kevin Carey :
Certainly, kudos to you and your efforts on that front as well. But we’ve had a intern program here for a number of years. We’ve got a class of nine interns, who are still in their roles as we speak here. I think they’re preparing their, their final capstone presentations for their team, but they’re embedded in each of our key teams from the government affairs team to our membership team, our foundation team, our HR department. So they’re learning about the role of an industry association, learning about the hospitality and the lodging industry structure overall. And they just brought a great energy as well as enhancement to our culture. And they’re doing great work. I’m always so impressed with their poise and maturity, and they really just blended right into the team, and it’s been great to have them around the office. And, and we’re really proud about the program. And internship programs are always something personal level, that I’ve had a lot of time for. I started my career in two internships that were very foundational and exposing me to the business community and creating a pathway to the first full-time job, that I had many years ago. So it’s been great to see our team embrace that and also the response we’ve received from our, from our intern class. And they’ve had some opportunities to play a leadership role actually where they’ve reached out and helped to convene interns from other trade associations and even from some of our member companies, and forged a joint session that was hosted here in our office where they’ve built a rapport and some networking that they’re doing with fellow interns across a number of different organizations. So, we’ll be sad to see them go, but also, really proud about the accomplishments they’ve had and what they’ve contributed to our organization.
Ryan Embree:
It’s so cool to see, and I can’t tell you how many times Kevin, I’ve been across interviewing a industry leader, and you know, how, how they have a very similar path. You know, they started either in an internship or they started as a summer job in college and fell in love with our industry or have a mentor that really guided them to say, “Hey, listen, you’ve got a career in this.” And, it’s always great to hear those stories, and it’s about creating those stories so that young professionals can be exposed to everything that our, our incredible industry has to offer. As, as you already know. And, you know, we had Alexi Khajavi from Questex on the podcast recently, he really set the stage for this year’s Hospitality Show in San Antonio, which the Suite Spot will be there and covering live, which we’re really excited about AHLA partners with Questex to put on this incredible show we’re both gonna be attending. What are you most looking forward to and why is this the must attend event for hoteliers this season?
Kevin Carey :
Well, we just had a joint working team session, earlier this week. And again, the enthusiasm, and the focus on just delivering, an outstanding offering for the attendees from the content that’ll be on main stage, to the breadth and the range of exhibitors will be on the trade show floor. And importantly the experience that’s gonna be created around the entire trade show and conference, including the evening social events, the ability to network, to interact with industry leaders and to really have that deep, meaningful content, that really differentiates the hospitality show. We were thrilled with the year one results that we delivered together as a partnership, and I’m confident you’re gonna see even further strides this year when we gather in San Antonio on October 28th to the 30th. So we’re thrilled to have you there, Ryan, and what we hope is thousands and expect to be thousands of other industry leaders and industry influencers who are gonna be on site to do business and connect with one another.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah. It looks and sounds to be, record breaking attendance. You know, I challenge, my audience, if you’re a hotelier, out there, check out the seminar and program and agenda that they have set for the, The Hospitality Show full of hospitality leaders, influencers, celebrities, some, it’s gonna be a really, really great show. We’re excited. But, you know, one of my favorite things about The Hospitality Show is you get all the brands together, right? All the industry leaders not just the sector. And you get to see, how some issues kind of rise to the top and you get to see a rallying cry around some really important issues, one of them being human trafficking, right? And the fight against that. And I know AHLA and the foundation and there are no Room for Human Trafficking Campaign, do a fantastic job and work, talk to us for those in our audience who aren’t familiar with this initiative and why is it, so important and should be at the top priority for hoteliers out there.
Kevin Carey :
Yeah, so thank you for that setup. The AHLA has been playing a leadership role, on this effort to prevent, and to combat human trafficking since 2019. We just recently, our AHLA foundation hosted the third annual No Room for Trafficking Summit, bringing together organizations, our industry organizations who were providing funding for via our new survivors fund. All focused around elevating the training, the awareness, and the efforts to support survivors of human trafficking. It’s such a, a powerful event and program. I believe we’re approaching close to 1.8 million hotel industry employees who’ve been trained in just the exponential impact and ripple effect in a positive way that that has a elevating awareness for people who can spot the signs and take action. The Survivors Fund, we announced at the event awards totaling up to a million dollars, for organizations who are on the front lines, of supporting the survivors of human trafficking. So this brings the entire industry together, not only the hotel brands, but owners, the management companies, but also the vendor community is active in this effort as well. So it’s an important and a serious issue, but also one where you can see that this industry making a difference.
Ryan Embree:
No, absolutely. And if you ever have any doubt or want to be inspired to support this cause, I challenge you just listen to one of these incredible stories and the difference that it is making right now. So, again, thank you to you and your organization for all the work that you do. It’s such an important cause for the hotel industry. Kevin, we know you’re boots on the ground, right? You’re traveling all over the country, talking to industry leaders, hotel brands, hotel management companies, and individual hoteliers at these regional hospitality events. We talked about at the top. We’ve got a lot of external factors right now. We’ve got inflation, rising interest rates, construction costs, and all that with an election year at the end of the year. So what’s your general sentiment? You know, when you put your ear to the ground, you talk to these everyday hoteliers out there, I mean, we just came off a great summer. But what’s the general sentiment out there about our industry and what to look forward to in 2025?
Kevin Carey :
Yeah, you touched on it Ryan. I think a number of factors that people would recognize, as creating some degree of uncertainty or some headwinds, and profitability is a challenge right now in the industry because of those factors, interest rates, the consumer health of the consumer, operating costs, even some of the public policy issues that we talked about in New York and Boston, those can create uncertainty as well as translate into real operating cost implications for the industry. So all those things are certainly present, and certainly the conversations I have with our members, acknowledge those. But from a medium and a long-term perspective, there’s still great recognition of this industry’s vitality that the sector of travel and tourism, will grow over time that people value those experiences, whether it’s individual ones for leisure, the group, and meeting events that they attend as well as for business travel. So you still see that long-term opportunity set, and I think that’s reflected through the investments industry is making in new brands, new concept development, investments in key markets. So that balancing between short term challenges, but also this long term growth trajectory is really front and center, in almost all the conversations I have with our industry leaders.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, that’s a great point. I mean, no longer can anyone question the resiliency of this industry after the last few years, but there is, you know, we’ve got the rise in business travel still surging. Fantastic to see, as you said, exciting announcements with new brands, new projects. We talked to some of them on the podcast here. There’s still so much hope on our industry and the consumers they’re still traveling. At the end of the day, we’re all travelers and we love to see it. So thank you again for all the awareness and education that, that your team do. And again for my audience, I really encourage you, visit AHLA.com, get educated on some of these issues that Kevin and his team are really fighting and advocating so much for everyday hoteliers. So, coming up on it now, but wanted to see if you had any final thoughts before we wrap up today, Kevin?
Kevin Carey :
Well, thank you again, for inviting me to join you. We will absolutely look forward to seeing you in San Antonio, the end of October for The Hospitality Show. And also as always just a sincere thank you on behalf of our team on the AHLA and the foundation side for our member companies investment, in AHLA and their leadership involvement and thought leadership involvement in driving the industry forward on the issues we’re active on. So thank you.
Ryan Embree:
Absolutely. Well, we appreciate it as well. Thank you to all of our hoteliers listening out there, and hopefully we will see you at The Hospitality show here in a couple months. We’ll check in with you as well next quarter. Kevin, thank you so much for joining me on the Suite Spot, and we’ll talk to you next time.
Kevin Carey :
Great. Thanks, Ryan.
Ryan Embree:
To join our loyalty program, be sure to subscribe and give us a five star rating on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.
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17min
August 27, 2024 145 – TMG Hospitality Campus Crawl: UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management
In the grand finale of the TMG Hospitality Campus Crawl, we visit one of the top-ranked hospitality programs in the country at UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management. The Dean of the college, Dr. Cynthia Mejia, joins the Suite Spot to discuss the hospitality school and why it is one of the most successful in the world!
Check out the conversation with topics, including:
🎓How UCF Rosen Is Shaping Hospitality Leaders
🤝The Importance of Employer Partnerships
📉Navigating Current Industry Challenges
And much more. Tune in now!
Episode Transcript
Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio.
Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree and we are here with our TMG Hospitality Campus Crawl, and I am so excited for this episode. We are here at my alma mater, UCF, and who’s joining me today is the Dean, Dr. Cynthia Mejia, UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management, the award-winning UCF Rosen College. Thank you so much Dr. Mejia, for being with me today.
Dr. Cynthia Mejia :
Wonderful. Thank you for having me here. It’s a pleasure to join you.
Ryan Embree:
It’s so exciting because like I said, this is my alma mater. This is where hospitality was ingrained. We always talk about DNA, but since this is your first time on the Suite Spot, we would love to hear about your hospitality journey and the path that led you to UCF Rosen.
Dr. Cynthia Mejia :
Wonderful. So, I was recently appointed as the new dean recently in June. And prior to that, I served as the interim dean since October of 2023. But I’ve been a faculty member here since 2013. When I first joined the college, and this is actually my second career, my first career for over 20 years, I ran food and beverage, and I was an executive chef out in the industry, mainly in the lodging side. And I ran banquets, large hotel restaurants, catering and events and operations. And then slowly moved up into operations within the hotel sector, small hotels and such. And so there, there came a point as people tend to know about our industry, that it’s a lot of work. It can take a good number of hours. And after doing that for about 20 years, I took a little break. And I just, I decided to get married and start a family. And then that’s when I began my journey into, to higher ed, getting my master’s and then my PhD, and then thinking about the ways that I love this industry. I have a lot of passion for this industry, and, you know, how can I give back? How can I be part of the industry and help the future leaders of our industry thrive with what I’ve learned, good and bad things that I’ve learned along the way. And then the best practices, of course, that we teach in higher ed. So that’s how it sort of all came together and came in as a faculty teaching food and beverage operations, facilities management, supply chain management. And then I moved into administration as an interim chair of my department, and then finally as the interim dean and now the dean.
Ryan Embree:
And it’s quite a journey. And, it’s the same mission that we have in this series is we’re trying to get more and more people involved in this industry that you can tell by your journey you’re extremely passionate about. I’m extremely passionate about, we’re going through a staffing shortage. We’ll talk about that a little bit in our industry, but 20 years celebrating 20 years at UCF Rosen and this college of Hospitality Management. For those who aren’t aware, give us a little bit of history about this college and where it started to where it is literally one of the preeminent hospitality programs in the world right now.
Dr. Cynthia Mejia :
So in 2024, this whole year, we’re celebrating our 20th anniversary. And of course, I didn’t join until 2013, but I hear all the stories and know all the lore and there’s so many faculty who are here who came from way back then. We even have somebody here who’s worked 38 years in our college. So the school or the program came out of the College of Business a long, long time ago. And at the time Mr. Harris Rosen, who is our namesake and our largest donor and philanthropist, he donated 20, approximately at the time, $20 million and 20 acres in front of Rosen Shingle Creek, which is his large resort to start this college. And Dr. Abe Pza, who was our founding dean, worked on that project, you know, converted everything over from College of business to start our program. So that occurred in 2004 when this campus opened. And by the end of 2004, we had around a thousand students already. So it went from a, a couple hundred to a thousand at that time, very, very fast, because in this area, of course, our proximity to I Drive and the center of hospitality, Disney, universal, SeaWorld, you know, all of this area and hotels there was a need, of course to train the future leaders who would serve in these businesses. And then in 2008, we established a couple more degrees. So we started out with hospitality management. Another very, very popular approach degree program was event management, which at one time had around 1200 students in it at its peak. In 2012, we established our PhD in hospitality management in 2016. This was, as I was coming in, and this sort of happened as I was a faculty member, we received a very large donation to start our entertainment management degree, which is in collaboration with the College of Arts and Humanities, a very popular degree. And at around, uh, 2016, we had 3000 students here at the college. Yeah. So there’s just really fast growth and hiring fa yeah. Hiring faculty, hiring staff. Of course, in 2017 or so, our founding dean stepped down, remained on our faculty, and we had a new dean, Dr. Wong, and then Covid. It was at 2020. And it was, it was a really interesting time. I was a chair at that time and just devastating for our industry, devastating for higher education. And I will say, kind of looking back, UCF will say, and I want to brag a little bit, I think leads the nation in online learning with our center for Distributed Learning. And so, because all faculty at UCF are really trained on teaching online, incentivized to do so and supported to do so, our conversion to moving online, our programs online was seamless. And so, you know, that, that occurred and what happened, of course, the industry had layoffs and furloughs at the time. And what happens when the economy goes down a little bit or of course, in this time of covid, people want to do something during those times. They want to show that they’re progressing forward and they’ll take the time. So we actually had a bump in enrollments in both the undergraduates and the graduate degree programs. And at the peak we’re at 3,300 students. That’s the most we’ve ever had. And then of course, as Covid waned, everybody rushed to go back to work. So we right sized it down to around 2,900 or so. And, and as with industry, and we’ll talk about that talent shortage and labor and the labor pool, as with that we saw a little bit of that decline, which is consistent with programs across the world, actually, hospitality and tourism management programs across the world. So currently we have 72 faculty across three departments. We have six undergraduate degree programs, seven undergraduate certificate programs, four master’s degree programs. I believe we have more than three master’s certificate programs. I believe we have four or five, actually. And then of course, we have a PhD program. And so that brings us to today.
Ryan Embree:
With a beautiful campus right here in the center of everything. And that’s why I want to talk about next, because location, you know, Orlando, obviously known as the theme park of the world. Passed a couple on my commute when I was a student up here. But it’s gotta be great for students to kind of be immersed in hospitality at this school. So can you talk a little bit about the role of location, where this college is situated and how it sets students up for success as they progress in their careers?
Dr. Cynthia Mejia :
So, Central Florida is the most visited destination in the United States and Orlando, and I would dare say all of Florida is unparalleled in our, in our, um, infrastructure to welcome guests and the things that there are to do and to see and experience here. So we have a quite an amazing draw of students, you know, both locally and nationally and internationally to come here, because we are so embedded with industry, we are so supported by industry. You know, guests speak in our classes. They speak right here in our stage. They table, we have the highest job placement rate nearing around 98%. When students are in their senior year, they come and they table here, and there’s not enough students to fulfill the roles, the leadership roles that they need. So it’s an amazing draw. We have them on our advisory boards. They tell us new things that are happening 5-10 years from now, how we should ready our students. We ask them to help shape our curriculum. Our theme park and attractions management degree program was assisted by Universal Orlando and Disney and SeaWorld and many others. We have the iDrive Chamber of Commerce, which is part of this region, and who we and who we belong to and serve right here. And the hotels up and down, I-drive that they’re just, we call them up, we text them, they text us, Hey, we have a role. Who do you know? It’s really, really embedded. And that’s, I think is our success, is to be able to bring that to students.
Ryan Embree:
Well, that’s what I was gonna say, is that it’s not just about location, it’s about forging those partnerships. And on the way into this auditorium, first of all, I got my first job in hospitality right out there in that courtyard at a Rosen career fair. So, you know, I am a testament to those relationships that you have with those partners, but it is about more than location. You have to be able to have networking events, you have to have alumni be involved in coming back. And helping the university. So, talk to us a little bit about, I saw UCF Marriott Day, the second annual is taking place. Talk to us about how some of those relationships have formed with employers and how that really gives a fast track to starting a career in hospitality.
Dr. Cynthia Mejia :
So our students are some of the most sought after in the nationwhen we have career fairs. We have over 100 companies now coming. Maybe when you were here, it wasn’t that many, but now we don’t have enough room to put all of the companies. And we have around 800 students coming to those career fairs seeking internships. All of our students have to complete two well, actually three internships. One is a sort of a leadership formation, but the other two are actually work experience, that are all paid in different types of roles. I wanna give a shout out to a particular one, which kind of talks about how we are meshed with industry. We have a progressive internship with the Lowes Hotel Corporation. And so similar to how an accounting major will go and work with an Ernstand Young or whoever. And then they get a job after that. We’ve established that with Lowe’s Hotel Corporation. And so what happens is, students in their last two semesters in our program, the first semester, they’ll go and work and they’ll work two weeks at every single Lowe’s hotel. There’s five right now in the chain, and there’s more coming with Universal. They’ll work facilities, they’ll work front of the house, they’ll work food and beverage, they’ll work security reservations, and they’ll do these two weeks just to understand. And then once they select kind of an area that they wanna work on in the second semester, they will become supervisors and work towards more managerial positions. And upon successful completion of that, and the agreement between the student and the organization, they have direct job placement. So this kind of starting your career in college is something we are embarking upon. And our new students, our Gen Z students, this is a very different generation from when I went to school, probably from when you went to school. They want to see a career path. They wanna see ways for continual learning. They don’t wanna be told about it. They wanna feel it. They wanna see it. And so these are the kinds of things that we co-create with partners like Marriott, like Lowe’s, and like many others. Special things that we do that tailor to the organization’s needs. And also understanding how our students want to see themselves, and they’re gonna be the future leaders. So all of us have to work together. We can’t be in silos. We all have to work together, forging these relationships, creating new ways to be in industry, thinking about now inclusion of technology and how that’s gonna look. That’s our next frontier. But all of these things are very dynamic conversations that we have with super open, lovely people in our industry.
Ryan Embree:
Well one of the best things about our industry is the skills are so transferrable, right? So you can be an assistant general manager here in sunny Florida, but wanna move out to the mountains and you can become an GM or AGM out there for food and beverage or in hospitality. It all is rooted in people serving people. And I think, you know, it’s so cool to be a part of an industry like that. But it also creates so many opportunities. And we’re gonna talk about some stories. Which I think is, is really the best way to share that career path that you were talking about. But we’ve got the location, we’ve got the partnerships, but you guys are also doing a fantastic job of the curriculum that you’ve put together. Recognize number one in the nation by Shanghai rankings. First of all, congratulations to you and your staff on this achievement. But one of the things is how do you keep this top spot? You’ve said some of the ways so far, what does this mean to you, and how can you leverage that ranking for prospective students that might be uneasy of about whether hospitality is a career for them, or if they do know hospitality that UCF Rosen is the right college for them?
Dr. Cynthia Mejia :
That’s a good question. So the Shanghai rankings follows a research ranking. So, we have faculty members here who are research faculty, and then also who are instructors, research faculty. You know, 40% of their job is to conduct research on, on whatever topics they find of interest, whether it’s, you know, consumer behavior or it’s economics or, you know, marketing or employee experience. So there’s a wide range of topics. And our faculty who are engaged in research are among the finest in the world, for not only the quality of research that they conduct, but for the numbers of papers and grants and things that they’re going after to produce. And, and it’s called knowledge dissemination. So when you have faculty who say, are teaching a class and they’re teaching a group of students, and they’re also conducting some research, and they are having findings because they have to go to industry to collect data or they do panel data, or they work with consumers, they, they might, you know, look at something they did in the morning, and then in they’re in their class and they’ll say, this is what I’m seeing this morning. Some of the findings in my research. And to go a step further, faculty also engage students to help collect data, especially in master’s program and the PhD program. So they are not only learning about the context, but they’re learning about the how and the process behind it. And that I will share an interesting story about one of our graduates who utilize some research techniques to get herself a really, really good job in the industry. So when, when we say the Shanghai ranking, that establishes sort of a research profile and a knowledge dissemination. And that is actually advantageous at an international level to bring lots of talents to UCF Rosen College. It’s also helpful on the recruitment side because people wanna be on a winning team. Right. And they wanna be part of that culture. And we have so much collaboration with our faculty, not only internal, but also internationally. And so when we talk about it, it’s more of a function of that research side. But students gain and industry gains knowledge, they gain knowing the latest trends, they can help make different types of decisions. Our students can then go work in these companies and understand something they learned in class that was based in facts and research, and bring those findings, you know, to how they want to do their jobs, how they want to lead, or making decisions and such. So we do talk about it in that way and students gain the benefits of that. But it’s also can be recognized that, that in our PhD program, many of our students, well all of ’em in their PhD program, go to work in other universities. So they take a skillset, they take a knowledge base, and it just goes on and on and on. They teach others who are gonna teach others who are gonna teach others, both for industry, but also on the research side.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, absolutely. It keeps you ahead of the curve as far as any trends. You are right there knowing what guests are saying, people that are going to restaurants, trends, technology, a new technology in the way that travelers, the way that guests are receiving that technology sentiment about it. So, absolutely. And obviously, has some very positive benefits on both the education side, but also the real world side. And we’re gonna talk about one of those rows and research focus when it comes to staffing. We talked about it, we alluded to it. There’s a staffing shortage right now in our industry. How are programs like this kind of helping create, as you’ve put it, Dr. Mia the leaders of hospitality for the future?
Dr. Cynthia Mejia :
Yeah. So, as we talked about sort of post COVID, we had something called the Great Resignation. There was, prior to COVID, there was challenges in the industry around benefits or pay or hours. And there, there’s always been kind of those, you know, issues. But during COVID, when all of society, we had collectively figured out how much we need people who make food, who will serve food, who will deliver food, anyone in the service industries. We figured that out. And after those furloughs and layoffs, there was a little bit of disheartening, people who worked in the services industry, we won’t just call it hospitality, but in the services industries more broadly, they left because they were valued so much, but they wanted pay, they wanted benefits and all of those things that they wanted. And we’ve seen an increase in benefits, an increase in salaries.
Ryan Embree:
Flexible pay, flexible schedules.
Dr. Cynthia Mejia :
All of that we’ve seen. So what’s happened was, after the Great Resignation, there was something called the Great Reshuffling. So what I call them are people, those of us who love people, those of us who love service in this industry we’re people. People. And so, if in the great resignation, they all moved to other types of jobs where they weren’t around people, then came the great reshuffle where they started to move into other related services industries to work with people again in the service industry. And what’s really interesting, I hear this anecdotally from large companies that we work with, a lot of them ultimately came home. They came back because they missed their hospitality or their service work family. And so we’re trying to understand that. We’re trying to understand those dynamics. We’re doing a lot of research around it. And again, gen Z wants something else. So we’re all coming to this nexus right now and trying to understand. And one of the things I’ve said before is, you know, we can’t continue to work in silos and think we’re gonna figure this out individually. We have to work with industry, we have to work with high schools, we have to work with parents, high school counselors, and even go into middle schools to reeducate people to listen to their needs, how they want to work, where they want to work. And we have to be more responsive. And so we’re kind of coming into this reckoning. We’re seeing that there was some disengagement, of course during COVID right. This certain last four years. I have a daughter who was also behind a camera for two years in high school. So I saw this at home and coming back and ramping up opportunities to engage with each other, or asking students or supporting students to figure out the ways they want to engage. And so we can’t do things the way we used to do. We have to listen, be still, be empathetic. Mental health is also something we pay a lot more attention to wellbeing. We’re paying more attention to taking the stigmas away from not feeling so great sometimes and needing help and putting more resources there. UCF has done an amazing job on that. And so, you know, it has to be a full force effort among many stakeholders to understand how to better serve our student, how to create more opportunities for them to engage. And industry is right there waiting to do it. They are supporting, they are funding, they’re creating those things within their own businesses. And so we’re kind of going hand in hand right now to understand and kind of recreate what this is gonna look like. But we always have those theoretical perspectives of human behavior that are tested through research. So we understand best practices. We’re kind of at this point where we’re, we’re listening, we’re applying best practices, we’re changing how we teach. We’re including a little more technology. But at the same time, we’re also going back to some old school face-to-face meetings. Going to office hours, bringing dogs to come and pet in the middle of classes. Like for the wellbeing and water balloon throwing or whatever it is. So we’re trying to find the right fit of both ways to go after being responsive to students and also supporting their learning journey. Because they’re gonna be the leaders. They’re gonna be the future leaders.
Ryan Embree:
No, absolutely. It’s super commendable on the versatility and the way that you’re adapting to that. Because I do think you’re right, this staffing shortage has forced our industry to make changes a lot quicker than maybe our industry was ready for. But I think there is any silver lining, there’s gonna be a lot of great things that come out of this.Because there were a lot of stigmas to the hospitality industry. Long hours, sometimes not the greatest pay, always working on site versus remote.
Dr. Cynthia Mejia :
And that’s, that’s a tough one. Because, you know if you’re HR, marketing, or accounting or whatever, yeah. You can have your two or three remote days or even work from home. You can’t do that when you’re customer facing. So something you had mentioned before about alternative, work arrangements or giving employees more flexibility to create their own schedule. You know, do I wanna work morning, night? Can I switch? And those with families, we’re seeing companies bring more support for daycare and different things like that or continuous education and tuition reimbursement. So it’s changing out there. It must change. And there’s some top companies here in this region that are leading the way and doing that.
Ryan Embree:
It’s really cool to see, ’cause again, it’s going to present opportunities that I don’t think were there in hospitality before. And ultimately it’s gonna do what we want, which is bring in a bigger pool of talent. And we’ve really had to dip into different pools that we haven’t really historically gone to the, well, I mean, think about every time that you’ve talked to someone, whether it’s a hospitality industry leader where they said, I started in this and now I’m here. And we want to try to create paths where its, I started in hospitality and this is where I want to end my career because I love people so much and I love what I do. So, but that’s a story to tell. And that’s where I want to ask you today. I’m sure we live in an industry full of stories, feel good stories. Any recent ones that you’ve come across, whether it’s somebody landing that dream job or just feel good story about our industry.
Dr. Cynthia Mejia :
Absolutely. I first want to give a shout out to our internships team, and I call them the job whisperers. So they are actually very closely working with industry partners all over the nation and even internationally to understand what organizations want, what kinds of jobs out there, all the different levels, the personality of someone who could work there. And so, you know, they have this very large pool, but they also really help students organize their resumes to be a match. They listen to students about what are your goals? What are your strengths? Because it’s interesting in the hospitality or the services industries, not everyone wants to be in front of a customer or a person. Some people love the industry, but they’re creative in the background. And so they learn all of these details and then they kind of do these job matches and industry trusts us and that’s why they call us, who can you send for X, y, z position? So with that said, I have a couple of success stories that we recently were able to marry together. There is Cory Clancy graduate of 2021, who is the project coordinator with Walt Disney Imagineering, he was on the team that converted splash mountain at Magic Kingdom to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. So that’s a great story and a little dream job. I guess that, that sounds like a cool job. Right? Absolutely. This person, Emily Broker, so Emily Broker was actually my student, she was a master’s student and she and I did a lot of research together. And my research is qualitative in nature. So worked with her on collecting focus group data and interview data, and she would code things. And she was really good at it. She had a background in psychology. So she was in the Department of Psychology, but she loved people and she worked in a bar. So she came over to get her master’s degree with us. And then we got connected and did, you know, several papers together and a lot of research. Well, she loves people, but she has a very creative skillset and she loves the qualitative work. So she got together with Dr. Jessica Wiki, who leads our internship program. And Dr. Wiki knew someone at Experience Kissimmee, which is a very large destination, marketing organization, management organization, and connected Emily to that company. So now she’s an a research analyst for experienced Kissimmee. There’s several students who are undergraduates who are currently doing summer internships at Okinawa Japan on a multi rotational hotel operations internship. There’s Taylor Armstrong, who is gonna be completing his master’s degree in 2024. He’s the assistant director of safety and security at the Ritz Carlton Hotel here in Grand Lakes. So, different types of people and different types of jobs.
Dr. Cynthia Mejia :
All loving the hospitality industry. What’s especially lovely to me is when they get out into industry and then we have really strong connections with alumni, and then they call us and say, I need this person or that person. Because they trusted not only what they learn, but they trusted the shepherding process towards their job and the care that we gave them to a right match. And so they believe in us. And so we do the same thing, and it just goes on and on. And in fact, when I spoke with some graduates, we just had a master’s hooting ceremony here, a fancy hooting ceremony on this stage last week, Friday. And I told a couple of them, okay, hurry up, move up in your company so that you come back and, you know, get some of our graduates. And it’s just, this is a trust and an understanding of the quality of, of people that we work with and the care that we have, um, in helping people to find their, their dream jobs.
Ryan Embree:
It’s so cool. I love hearing those stories. And it’s cool to know that there’s a UCF Rosen footprint on a lot of the major hospitality brands out there, and it is a snowball effect. And like you said, when you’ve experienced it, you know what you’ve learned, then you can trust to call back and say, yes, I know what type of program, extensive program, what type of education that they’re getting, and they’re gonna be a valuable resource for my organization. Such a cool story. Obviously UCF Rosen, this is our final college for this particular series and the campus crawl. But we’ve visited several others, FIU and FAU.
Dr. Cynthia Mejia :
All good colleagues of ours.
Ryan Embree:
Absolutely. That’s what I wanna talk about, because earlier in this year, Rosen hosted the inaugural Florida Deans and Director Hospitality and Tourism Summit. So super interested in this. Obviously Florida, tourism is the name of the game for this state. How did this idea of coming of getting together all these deans and directors, and where do you see it moving forward?
Dr. Cynthia Mejia :
So I was the interim dean at the time, and because I wasn’t in that deans and directors position very long, I didn’t know any of them. So I went to a conference and I was being introduced and then, we’re drinking coffee and we’re talking about our same challenges and same hopes and dreams. And I would ask, have you ever gotten together? All of you? ’cause they all seem to know each other. There’s eight of us. There’s eight institutions in the state of Florida, and none of them had ever gotten together to meet. They sort of knew each other. Some texted each other. I said, I think we should meet. Like, do you wanna meet? Would that be a good thing to do? And so they said, you know, okay. And they were all over it. And I thought, well, you wanna meet with us because we’re in the middle. Wanna come over? Central Florida. It’s like when you’re a kid, like you wanna come over. So I was like, you wanna come over? And you know, we said, okay, so we set up a first meeting, but we had some conversations about what is it that we wanna meet about? What, why are we doing this? And there is, in the state of Florida, there’s a list of classes and discipline, not classes, but disciplines and majors that are called the strategic programs of interest. And they’re things that the governor and the legislature deems as very important programs to advance the economy in the state of Florida. Things like aerospace is in there, nursing, engineering, those types of tech jobs because that’s something of emphasis, strategic program of emphasis. And I had often looked at this list and I never saw hospitality or tourism. Yeah. And I thought, why don’t they think that’s important? And maybe there’s reasons, there’s probably lots of reasons that they didn’t think. So as we got to talking amongst ourselves, we learned that that was something that’s important to us because what you had mentioned about staffing and industry, and we are the pass throughs for all of this talent that goes out into industry. And so we all decided, well if we are those programs, how can we be supported at, you know, a legislature level with high schools, with all the other institutions? We can put this up as a program of prominence that is recognized. And there’s some ancillary benefits. Nothing major, but it’s mostly this is of emphasis. And it gets talked about. It gets marketed in this way. Parents hear about it, high schools hear about it. There’s potential grant fundings for it to help with scholarship, I’m told. But what it is, is all of us, the eight institutions of directors and deans, we decided let’s work on getting hospitality and tourism management on that list. And so we worked through some of those things. We’re all gonna be meeting again. We email and talk a lot whenever we see each other at conferences. We actually have the governor’s conferences coming up in Tampa pretty soon. And we decided to get really organized to kind of, you know, get all, all of our efforts and lobby for this. And we’ve, we kind of planted some seeds and asked some associations and dmo, you know, would you be interested in coming? And they’re like, yes. Because they need people to work in the industry. And so we all, it turns out that this kind of snowballed. So it’s been very exciting. Yeah. And the other thing is, is they’re just the nicest people. Yeah. They’re just, they’re kind and nice. There’s nobody showing off or anything like this. Right. We’re all interested in students in our programs, so they go out into the industry and they make it change for the better. That’s what we all want.
Ryan Embree:
Absolutely, and hospitality, so people serving people, that sounds like a great cause. And you know, I’m sure there were a lot of people shocked when they heard that.
Dr. Cynthia Mejia :
That we never met before or that it wasnt on the list?
Ryan Embree:
Yeah. That it wasn’t on the list. But it’s so cool to hear that. And again, you know, we’ve had the pleasure of visiting some of these campuses and interviewing some of these directors and deans. So, really exciting to see how that progresses. As we wrap up today, we’re gonna lean on some of your advice and wisdom to a couple different maybe segments of people. So, you know, I was here just over a decade ago in this auditorium about to graduate, about to start my hospitality career, not really knowing what was out there, what advice, you know, we just got done with, with graduating some, some students. What advice are you sharing with them right now as they enter the workforce here in 2024?
Dr. Cynthia Mejia :
So, couple of things. One is we, all of us have this idea of how something’s gonna look right. You know, for all us. And I don’t know about you, but for me it didn’t look at all like that. Right? But we have to be open to the opportunities that come. So plan B, plan C, right? To not be disappointed or the world falls apart because it doesn’t go this way. And to understand what our gifts, each of us have certain gifts and our skill sets and how to either leverage those or take positions when they become open. That can build new skill sets or we can meet new people who can help us. So, you know, I had this advice a long time ago. If you can’t, if you can’t go up, up, up, then go lateral. Don’t go down. Go laterals. So, and there’s so many jobs out there now.
Ryan Embree:
Great advice.
Dr. Cynthia Mejia :
There’s just so many jobs out there right now. So get in somewhere. Do your very best. Stay as long as you can. Be honest and forthright with your expectations. Also know that when you graduate, you, it depends if you come in, there’s, we have a lot of non-traditional students who’ve been managers for seven or 10 years. They’re gonna go out and be general managers or directors. But a lot of students, you know, are sort of entering in lower mid-level supervisory or managerial roles. And it takes some time, it takes some savvy and some emotional intelligence to build, to understand the people side of it and how to advance yourself through the levels. And so rather than seeing this position that you think is yours, or could be yours or should be yours, you gotta understand there’s process and entering into an organization, there’s all these other people who also want that thing. So kind of a good awareness of where you sit and informally how you can advance through the channels. That’s a really important skillset to have. But I would also say that, I always tell people, don’t look, compare yourself to all others. That’s not good for us. That’s not good for our mental health. Look down work, work harder than everybody else, but stay in your lane. Understand your skillset. Maybe you have to go do a little bit of, you know, online training or different kinds of education, or maybe go onto a master’s if you want, get an MBA or whatever it is to build other skill sets. So it’s always learning. And that’s what I love about our industry, especially the food and beverage side, where I come from. It’s always learning. There’s always something to learn. And I recently heard this wonderful advice that if you, if you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room. The graduation speaker said that at our last commencement. I like that. Which means to me is go where you can learn something. And if the opportunity presents itself, do that. And if you think that you’re supposed to be somewhere and an opportunity comes and it wasn’t what you thought, is it something where you can learn something to at least advance? You know, so taking that perspective of being open, constant learning, willingness, I think those are are helpful things for people going out into the industry. And for me, you know, any of us for me too.
Ryan Embree:
I was gonna say it’s great advice and, you know, being that sponge. And just, you know, there’s a lot of things after interviewing a lot of industry leaders, a lot of things we hear is one, the journey is not always the same. You know, you can start in one place and end up in a completely different place than you ever thought. And also look for mentors. Our industry is filled with them and, and they’re willing to help. They’re willing to usher in, you know, that, that next generation. So looking for those mentors and being a mentor.
Dr. Cynthia Mejia :
And being a mentor is really important. I think that, you know, and that’s what I also try to do personally, but I know we all do this at the college, is we’re always asking others or identifying in others. And even when people look like they don’t need help, but they’re doing well get to know ’em a little bit more because there’s something mutually beneficial that we could teach each other. We could show each other. But you’re right about, about the mentors. And I didn’t think of it ’cause we’re always teaching, so I just assume that. But there’s faculty here who are still in contact with people two decades ago who help and answer questions and, and ask advice. I ask certain faculty here for advice all the time and that’s wonderful. I have many mentors here at this college.
Ryan Embree:
Well let’s go to another stage in life. So those students that are about to start their education journey, those incoming freshmen into the UCF Rosen Hospitality Program, what advice are you giving them day one as they step on campus?
Dr. Cynthia Mejia :
Get involved, leave your dorm room, leave your apartment, get involved, join clubs, meet people, make friends, get yourself in environments. Getting a study group if you’re more quiet, find the quiet people if you like band and, you know, color guard and all those things. I’ve heard a lot of students who like that recently. I mean UCF has 68,000 students. There’s hundreds of clubs. There’s too many things for them to do. So go and do those things. Be with people, learn the people skills, practice your soft skills. Take some risks, make mistakes, fail a little bit, but keep going and trying to build your network of friends. It’s really important for the hospitality industry and just life in general. And the other thing I would say is have fun. College should also be fun. We forget that sometimes. I mean, we have a 99% graduation rate and a 98% placement rate. So students are working all the time, 30 to 40 hours. They’re taking four, five classes. Sometimes they’re working in summer, taking class in summer, joining a couple of clubs and such. And so we also have to think about this pressure to go, go, go, go. You know, you’re supposed to have fun too, you know, so carve out sometimes to have some fun. Make time.
Ryan Embree:
Your students are just steps away from theme parks, restaurant. World class restaurants. So you’re right. Easy. Lift your head up and maybe take a walk and you’ll run into something. Well, as we wrap up with the final question, as Dean, what is your vision for UCF Rosen College for the next 5-10 years?
Dr. Cynthia Mejia :
It’s a pretty broad vision and I’m about to share it with our faculty and invite them in to think about it, because I don’t, I do think it’s important for a leader to have a vision, but I also think it’s should be inclusive and should be adaptable. But I think very broadly, I want for us to be the pioneer in transforming the way that hospitality and tourism education and research is conducted. And I want in 5 or 10 years for industry, for our alumni, for other institutions to say, you know, in 2024, 2025, Rosen College changed the way that this field is taught and that research is conducted. They were the ones who changed it, made the 2.0 and that’s broadly what I hope to see. We’ll see. Because we must do this. We must make these changes.
Ryan Embree:
Well, thank you so much. Absolutely. Inspired again, as an alumni of this university is, it’s so cool to be able to come here a decade after I graduated and to be back on this stage where I was watching hospitality leaders inspire me to be a part of the industry. So thank you so much for joining me, Dr. Mejia and for all the work that you and your team do here.
Dr. Cynthia Mejia :
Thank you. And it is a pleasure to have you here and I hope you’ll come back and maybe do a leadership seminar.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, it’d be my pleasure. Well thank you so much. Thank you for the UCF Rosen College for hosting us here at the Suite Spot. Thank you for listening to us, and we’ll talk to you next time on The Suite Spot. To join our loyalty program, be sure to subscribe and give us a five-star reading on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host Ryan Embry, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.
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43min
August 21, 2024144 – TMG Hospitality Trailblazers: Joseph Grieco
Check out the latest TMG Hospitality Trailblazers episode featuring the Executive Vice President of Development at Gibson Hospitality Ventures, Joseph Grieco!
This episode takes a deeper look into the Gibson Hospitality Ventures brand culture, hotel portfolio, and company initiatives that are setting the stage for more organizational success.
Get an inside perspective on topics such as:
The Explosive Growth of Gibson Hospitality Ventures
How Gibson is Combating Industry Staffing Challenges
Leveraging Guest Feedback to Influence Hotel Profitability
The Importance of a Strong Hotel Digital Presence
Tune in now!

Episode Transcript
Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio.
Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check-in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree. Thank you so much for joining us today. We have a fantastic episode for you today continuing our TMG Hospitality Trailblazers series. If this is your 1st, 5th, or 15th episode in this series, it’s all about the people and management companies that are pushing and moving our industry forward, the industry that we love so much. We’ve got a great example and guest with me to share his story and the management company that is recognized as an industry leader. We’re gonna talk a lot about that today, but let me bring him in. Without further ado, Joe Grieco, executive VP of Development at Gibson Hospitality Ventures. Joe, thank you so much for joining me on the Suite Spot.
Joseph Grieco :
Thank you, Ryan. It’s a pleasure to be here. I love listening to your podcast and all the other guests you’ve had on in the past. And, quite an honor to be here with you. Thank you.
Ryan Embree:
Absolutely. And we’re really excited to talk about Gibson Hospitality Ventures. You guys have a lot of exciting things happening right now at your organization, but before we get into that too much, we love to start these episodes with just a little bit of hospitality background, the journey that led you to Gibson Hospitality Ventures and your experience so far.
Joseph Grieco :
Sure, so I actually started on the food and beverage side. Grew up in a big Italian family where everything was always centered around the dining table. So the restaurant industry was always a passion of mine growing up and started as a dishwasher in the kitchen. Quickly learned that I wasn’t cut out for the back of the house, enjoyed the front of the house a lot more. So I went off and worked my way around to bartending, serving, managing various restaurants. My first kind of crossover position was doing room service for a Hilton in downtown Knoxville. And it was a lot of fun. Had a blast down there, worked with a great group of people. But from there I realized the restaurant industry was always a passion of mine. And I met a gentleman when I was at the hotel restaurant program and the two of us went and opened a restaurant in downtown Knoxville back in 2002. I was 24 years old and very young, but we went off and, and started our first venture down there. So had a great time. The restaurant was called Pasta Trio. We were there for about seven, eight years in downtown Knoxville. But I had a baby on the way and kind of realized that having a restaurant and a baby wasn’t gonna work out too well for me long term. So at the time, I was working commercial real estate and business brokerage focused on hotels and restaurants. That was in 08′ or 09′ when the market started to collapse. So I had a side job working for the Knoxville Marriott as a bartender and working in banquets as a banquet captain, and knew they were looking for a food and beverage manager. So I got back into the hotel side on, in the food and Beverage department, spent a few years working for the big box hotels around Knoxville Holiday Inn and Marriott, as a food and beverage director. And then one of my former general managers called me up and asked me to take on a general manager position for a bank foreclosed property in Sevierville, Tennessee that Gibson Hotel had been asked to manage. And knowing Mr. Gibson’s reputation and knowing the company, it was almost a no brainer for me.To come and work for an organization of this was just such a great opportunity, especially to take a GM role with just my past F&B experience, and to be able to learn more about the industry. So it was a grueling year, getting that property back on its feet. It was a bank foreclosed property that, that needed a lot of work. So I got to be very hands-on, on all aspects of the hotel. We had to rebuild its online reputation. We had deferred maintenance, we had tons of problems throughout the property. So it was a very successful year though. And the, the hotel, the bank was able to take the hotel and resell it. And I was promoted to take over at one of our flagship properties, the Spring Hill Suites in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, where I was GM for. I was there for about nine months before they started piling some other stuff on top of me. I took on some regional operation roles and started overseeing some other hotels we had in the market while I was still the GM at the Spring Hill. And then from there, Mr. Gibson asked me to, uh, to come and join his corporate office team as a regional. Uh, so IO over the next few years, I, I grew from my regional position to vice president of operations. And eventually, back in 2015, Mr. Gibson gave me my first opportunity to oversee the construction of our new Fairfield in Inn in Johnson City, Tennessee. And I kind of caught the bug from there. It was, uh, my first taste of hotel development, new construction, and I, I really enjoyed it. And we did, uh, that hotel has been extremely successful for us. So since then I’ve worked on, uh, about 18 new construction projects with our company. Uh, some of them in-house projects, some of them third party managed developments. We’ve done a, a brand conversion, uh, converting an old Fairfield, uh, gen one hotel to a La Quinta. We’ve done renovations. So a lot of different stuff working here. It’s, it’s been a, a great experience. Currently, I’ve got four hotels that we’re overseeing construction on, four renovations, getting ready to start towards the end of the year. We’re kind of in that same boat with everybody else with the, uh, the renovation influx that’s coming for everyone right now. And then we’ve got a very robust pipeline with, uh, several more hotels due to start in the next six months. So, uh, very excited about the growth in front of us. Yeah.
Ryan Embree:
Well, we’re gonna talk about that explosive growth in a moment. But, you know, just to get back to your story, and I think this is a great piece of advice for young hotel professionals right now, is to listen to Joe’s story. And I’m sure you could attest now, Joe, with that year that you were, you, that general manager and the challenges that you had, probably one of the biggest learning opportunities I would imagine, and taught you a lot, especially even where you are today with development. I mean, that is not right now with construction timelines, everything that you have to get through, I’m sure there’s a lot of challenges within that, but just that year probably just taught you a lot about kind of pushing through. And for those young professionals out there that get an opportunity like that, it might seem like, man, why are they putting me in this, this property over here? But that is such an opportunity for you to learn and could serve you way, way down the line in your career. Joe, would you agree with that?
Joseph Grieco:
Oh, a hundred percent. The things I learned, I mean, the, the things I learned during that year, overseeing that property and, and all of the fact that you just had to touch every piece of the hotel. If you go into a, a brand new Marriott property or Hilton property that was built in the last three years and doesn’t have any issues, you’re never gonna understand all the different components that go into making that the asset, the operation, uh, everything a success there. So, and it’s served me really well on the development side. So coming up in operations, I, I use that knowledge every day in the new hotels that we open. Uh, I go into a project thinking about why and how we’re gonna use certain things when we’re building them, and whether or not we have the most efficient layout in some areas, it, does this make sense for where we are putting the offices or how we’re setting up the laundry system? What are the challenges that that hourly associate’s gonna be facing two, three years from now because of the decisions that we make now? So, you know, seeing that and being there firsthand and seeing other people’s mistakes and, and what they did wrong and being able to learn from those, it’s very important step in any young hotelier’s growth. So I would say take those, uh, disaster hotels, take on some of those challenges. It’s, it’s a lot of hard work, but it’s worth it in the end for, for what you learn from that experience.
Ryan Embree:
Absolutely. And, and here you sit again with a portfolio of over 30 hotels. You know, Gibson has seen some explosive growth over the last decade to its journey to, to where it is today, one of the top hotel management companies in our industry. What do you, what do you attribute your team’s success to? Joe? I know you’ve been with the organization for a while, and how and why has that allowed it to grow so rapidly in a time where, you know, not a lot of management companies have had this type of explosive growth that Gibson’s been able to enjoy?
Joseph Grieco:
Sure, sure. Um, well, number one, I mean, our, our, our staff and, and it’s, it’s a hundred percent comes down to the people that are out there every day taking care of our assets, taking care of our guests. Without them, we never would’ve been able to grow as quickly as we have in the past 10 years. And Mr. Gibson always insists on the importance that we’re always hiring the right people for the right position. You know, our, our corporate office is a prime example of that. Everyone who works in our corporate office, well, nearly everyone who works in our corporate office has worked in an hourly management position in hotels and restaurants. So they bring that past experience and those perspectives to their current positions. Kind of like we were talking about. Everything that I learned at the, the hotel that I spent a year at, you know, those, those experiences they have and those, those line level positions where they were in the field, uh, previously in their careers, it impacts them. No matter what discipline that is, whether they’re in accounting or human resources or revenue management, they have a little more empathy for the people that are on the front lines and, and understand what they’re going through. You know, we’re a small company. We’re not very top heavy. We try not to be overly demanding on, on, you know, our staff as far as paperwork and things like that. Uh, we want them to be out there taking care of the guests. We don’t want our GMs behind the desk sitting there doing forms and filling out Excel spreadsheets. If they’re not in front of our guests, then our hotels are not successful. And the way that we grow and the way that we continue to do other hotels is to run the hotels that we have successfully to operate great hotels for the those owners and to be able to give them good returns on their assets by having repeat customers and, you know, taking care of those guests that come in. You know, the old adage, take care of your, your employees, they’ll take care of your guests, they’ll take care of your, and your guests will come back. That’s, it’s, it’s as true today as ever. It’s, it’s the most important part. Uh, so, so really our staff is probably one of the most important reasons we’ve been able to grow as much as we have. And, you know, we have a very low turnover within our company, and we believe very strongly in succession planning and growth from within. So, you know, we have many success stories in our companies where, you know, I can, I can remember maintenance engineers that ended up being general managers in our company, uh, housekeepers that worked their way up to assistant executive and then executive, and then into a GM position. So that internal growth and that ability to retain staff and, and to have the people out there in the field to operate these properties, when we open them and when we take over new assets, you know, we love having a, a flying squad. Our, our group of people that go out for, uh, when we do an acquisition or a takeover and, you know, they’re, they’re experts in their field and they go out and they, they do great things. And it’s, it’s kind of a privilege for our team members out in the field to get to participate in those things. So they’re a huge part of our success, being able to, to take those employees from hourly positions to management. But as much as we’ve grown, you know, we still always maintain a very personal approach with our hotels and our staff and our owners. We love being out in the field with our hotels and helping our team and our, our operations team. We make sure our operations team is at the property every month no matter what. So at the end of the month, when the financials come out, our operations team gets to the property and does a full property review with our general manager and our, our, uh, management teams. We walk the properties, we review all your KPIs, you know, we go through the financials, we go through the guest service scores, we walk through the kitchen, we check the, you know, we check to make sure the hotel is being run properly, that it’s a, it’s clean, that there’s no deferred maintenance, that everything is being run the way it should be, the way we would expect it to be run if we were coming in as a guest. And that makes a huge difference too, in our success. And, you know, our, our owners see that. Our owners see that in their returns. They see it in the awards that we win for them. You know, whether it’s a torch bar bearer award, or a platinum award from Marriott. You know, it’s a, it’s a tribute to the, the properties that we run. But the other reason, and, and the other true, true inspiration for all our success would, I, I would definitely say would be Mr. Gibson. It’s just a little different when you work for a true leader like Mr. Gibson that has really a passion for the industry and, and drives our team to do better every day. You know, he has so much hospitality knowledge that he, that he shares with us all the time, and he’s just a great mentor for, for all the people around our office. And he makes us do better for our guests, our staff, our owners, our company. And, um, you know, working for a company like a, a company like this and an owner like Mr. Gibson, it allows us to be a little more flexible as a company. So, you know, we get to be a little choosy with who we work with. We’re not, we have grown explosively and we could probably be double the size that we are right now if we were willing to take on some hotels and some other opportunities that really just weren’t right for us as a company and didn’t fit with our culture. So that’s also one of the benefits of, of the way we’re able to growth. We’re able to focus in on strategic growth that, that makes the most sense, both for our company, uh, for those owners too. You know, we’ve had candid conversations with owners that wanted us to hi, wanted to hire us, but it didn’t make sense. The revenues weren’t there. The hotels couldn’t support a third party management with the systems that, that we bring in to, to run a hotel properly. Partners like TMG and the other services. So, you know, we’re very strategic. We don’t just want to be another company like the big guys out there that have 250 hotels and maybe they see them once a year. We, we wanna be very hands-on, and we want to grow and scale as, as our portfolio grows.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, no, that’s a great point. Growth doesn’t necessarily equal strategic growth, right. And, and picking the right owners to work with, making sure that you can still instill that high touch culture that you’re talking about over there, Joe, to make sure that the projects that you are working on maintain the standard of your brand, which is super important and, and a trend that we see in a lot of these hospitality trailblazers that we interview here. And we can attest to the, to the success. ’cause you’ve got some really excited, you and your team have been really busy over there, Joe, ’cause you’ve got some exciting developments, new properties being, you know, just open. We’ve seen some press releases out there about some new properties being open, new partnerships, which I’m personally really excited about. Can you expand on some of these opportunities right now in the development side of Gibson?
Joseph Grieco:
Sure. Be happy to. So, so in the past, our portfolio’s been predominantly select and extended stay products. We do have some have had some full service products in the past and still do. And, and Mr. Gibson and I always kind of had a passion for those bigger, uh, full service, uh, hotels, restaurants, the food and beverage operations that go along with them. So that’s where our focus is right now on our growth is on the full service side. Uh, don’t get me wrong, we’ve always had a robust pipeline of select and extended state properties, and we still do. We, uh, but we’ve been recently working on a lot of really exciting projects. We have a new partnership we’re working on with Sports Illustrated Hotels and Resorts. We’re working on several new Compass by Margaritaville locations. We have a couple of deals that we’re partnering with Travel and Leisure on right now through our relationships with Margaritaville and Sports Illustrated. And we’re also starting to work with some more boutique and soft brand hotels we hope in the future. So that’s definitely a trajectory that we feel our company needs to take. And it’s really a, a passion for me and Mr. Gibson. It’s, it’s what we enjoy and we love doing. So Sports Illustrated has been really exciting for us. It’s been a a lot of fun working with those guys and getting to work on a new and emerging brand that has, uh, so much potential, especially in today’s market where clients are really seeking more experiential, stays, more adventure, something a little different than you get from the typical Hilton and Marriott hotels. So the potential for a brand like that, we feel is, is limitless. Um, you know, they have, they, they’re backed with so much history and legacy. They have, uh, tons of potential verticals that you can explore with the brand that, that has that experiential piece to it, whether it’s, you know, resorts or beach clubs or, you know, uh, uh, ski retreats. But what we’re real, we’ve been really most excited about and, and see the most, uh, potential in is on the Sports Illustrated University hotel model. And that’s what we’ve been working really strongly at. We’re we’re located here in Knoxville, where we’ve got our Tennessee balls right down the road in Neland Stadium. So, you know, we we’re working with Travel and Leisure and, uh, the Sports Illustrated group, and we’ve been very honored to be able to collaborate on the new Sports Illustrated that’s being developed down at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. That’ll be the first sports illustrated in the country. There’s one currently down in Capa, uh, in the Dominican Republic. So, but this’ll be, uh, along with the university model, and it’s, it’s part of a large mixed use campus that includes condos and timeshares, the hotel, some restaurants, and retail and entertainment. So that’s been a very, very exciting project to work on. And, um, just that being able to have that collaboration with the Travel and Leisure team and Sports Illustrated, it’s, um, it’s just been incredible. And this is just the first one, but with all the potential on these projects, we see a lot of, uh, a lot of great future in, in the, the other developments that can come from this in, in, in different markets that, that we’re in already and markets we’ve been looking to get into for some time.
Ryan Embree:
Oh, I can imagine. I mean, you’re, you’re talking to someone that as a kid would, would wait for that Sports Illustrated, uh, magazine to come through. So as soon as I saw that Sports Illustrated press release come through that newsfeed, I’ve, I’m right on board. And what a place to start in Tuscaloosa. I don’t know if those Tennessee Vol fans are, are excited about that, but, uh, you know, hopefully we see a lot of expansion there, but really exciting projects on that end. But let’s get into location, you guys, Gibson as a massive footprint in the southeast, specifically Tennessee, where you’re located, where your corporate headquarters are in, in Knoxville. What do you like about this market and where do you see opportunity?
Joseph Grieco:
Sure. Well, you know, this really goes back to being a hands-on company, but it’s, it’s definitely worked in our favor. You know, we love the Southeast and, uh, there’s nothing quite like southern hospitality. I’m originally from New York, but I’ve been in Knoxville since 1990 and I love it here. I’m raising my family here, and no plans on moving anytime soon. But, um, you know, many of the markets that we’re in and, and the markets in the Southeast have just seen tremendous growth in the last 10 years. And it’s been wonderful to be able to be a part of that growth and to be able to add more hotels into these markets, you know, as, as they grow, we grow. Pigeon Forge is a prime example. Um, Mr. Gibson was one of the first hoteliers to see the potential to bring a branded product like a Marriott into the Pigeon Forge market that was saturated with just mom and pops and independent hotels for the most part. So back 15 years ago, he had to go and convince Marriott that their product would work in this kind of market. And now if you look around, it’s just exploded. You know, every every brand is is up there already with, you know, more to come and even ones that, that we’re still developing there. So, you know, our residents in, in Pigeon Forge actually won opening Hotel of the Year from Marriott last year. So, you know, for us, it’s important that we’re in these markets, so we recognize who’s coming to the market and we give them what they want. We don’t, don’t try and educate our consumer. We give the consumers what they want, especially in these leisure markets, whether that’s the beach entry pool and the, the bubblers and the splash pad to, to create more of a resort experience for the kids. You know, making sure that we’ve got one of the best in class, uh, complimentary breakfasts that go along with our products in the select service markets. And just making sure that we have hotels that just continue to wow guests that way when they do come back, you know, they’re, they’re repeat customers. They’re always, when they come back to the Pigeon Forge market, we know that they’re gonna, they’re gonna come back and they’re gonna stay at our Spring Hill or our Residence Inn that’s up in that location. But for us, it’s much easier to do that and to recognize those customers right here in our own backyard than it is for us to go to Colorado or Texas. I mean, sure, we have the ability and, and we have, in the past, we’ve had third party management comp contracts in Texas and other other states that were probably a bit too far for us at the time, and we hadn’t really scaled up enough to be able to manage those hotel properly, but we recognized that and we had a candid conversation with the owner. We helped ’em find a company that was more apt to run that asset for them. And, you know, it was, it was the right decision for everyone at the time. Like I said before, we’re not looking to grow in ways that doesn’t make sense for our company, but now as we look to the future, and we we’re looking for other opportunities and we continue to expand beyond the southeast, you know, Mr. Gibson’s bought a small plane that the company has the ability to use, which is, has definitely helped us out a lot. It’s a, it’s a huge time saver for our team to be able to get a property that used to take a six hour drive, and now we can be there in about two hours. It makes a huge difference in, in our team’s ability to, to get outside and a little further from where we normally operate. And, you know, ultimately, ultimately though, this is our home and, and we know these markets and we’re gonna continue to expand, uh, you know, we’re moving towards, uh, further into the Midwest and the the Northeast, but we’re gonna do it strategically like we’ve done our other growth. We don’t wanna just jump off the handle and go open a hotel in California for the fun of it, because it’s just not worth it for us. It, it doesn’t make any sense for us to operate on a three hour times zone difference in a, a market we are just not as familiar with.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, no, it all comes back to that strategic growth that we were talking about. And, you know, it sounds like you have some incredible white glove service with your mem your, your staff and onsite team members, so it doesn’t make sense to take a property that’s, again, led to the success and it’s actually been recognized. You know, you, Gibson Hospitality has earned numerous recognitions almost every brand on, on your website I’m seeing, but including being that four time winner of Marriott’s prestigious Partnership Circle Award, what do these recognitions mean to you, and how have you been able to leverage them to grow Gibson as a top tier hospitality management company? Well,
Joseph Grieco:
It’s really been amazing, um, especially the Partnership Circle award. That one, that one really means a lot to us. And to win it four times now is just a testament to the teams at our hotels and to our corporate office staff and, and just how much hard work our, our teams really do put into running these assets. But really, I mean, ultimately, we don’t run hotels to win awards. We try to run great hotels, and everyone on our team is on the same page when it comes to that. We take care of our guests, we take care of our assets, we make sure that we have the best product in the market. We make sure that we’re the top in our competitive set, and then if something’s broken, we fix it or we replace it as soon as possible. And we believe in the importance of empowering our staff to solve problems and take care of those guests. A big part of this just goes to our hands-on approach in running hotels and hiring the right people. You know, we expect our GMs to run hotels like they own that property. You know, they have to have that entrepreneurial spirit and the desire to see the hotel and, and the team succeed on every level. So, yes, it’s, it’s, it’s amazing to see our company win these awards and, and, uh, you know, to be recognized by companies like Marriott for Partnership Circle Award or with, uh, platinum and, and Gold Circle Award winning hotels with the Torch bearer awards that we have. But also, it’s amazing to see the internal recognitions. You know, we have, uh, staff within our, our company that routinely wins local awards in the market, like our Polly Awards here in Knoxville with the Greater Knoxville Hotel Association. Just to be able to hire and to, to grow these employees and to see their, uh, career expand and to see them win these awards and be part of the hotels winning these awards. It’s just a tremendous experience for us. And it’s also great for our reputation, you know, it, it definitely does help our, our reputation as a, a natural reaction to seeing us win these awards and the accolades at the Marriott conferences, and to see our name up on the big screen. But really our reputation is more from the way we operate our hotels for our owners and, uh, you know, how we pride ourselves on taking care of those assets and running the best in class products.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, I like, I like what you said there, Joe, about, you know, we don’t run hotels to win awards. You know, you run hotels and then hopefully get recognized by awards and that kind of be the thing that tells you that you’re doing a good job, right? Hearing guests, giving you online reviews, hearing things on social media, uh, praising, and then hopefully those awards come really, really cool. And I’m sure it helps with staffing as well, right? I mean, we’re all competitive people in the world. Staff wants to work with the best. So if you’re out there winning awards, you know, I’m sure that you’re gonna win that candidate too. That and, and saying, Hey, I wanna be on, I wanna be on this team. So, but you know, outside of that, like you said, Gibson does a lot, it has an entire section dedicated to its website, to social responsibility and all the incredible causes, organizations that your team supports. Can you share any inspiring stories and maybe why this was a priority for your or organization and Mr. Gibson?
Joseph Grieco:
Sure. Uh, yeah, this, this definitely comes from the top down. This is, uh, this is, uh, um, Mr. Gibson has always been a very strong supporter of a lot of the causes in the organizations that you’re referring to. You know, I’d say most importantly, one of the, the ones that I wanna point out would probably be his work with the Tennessee Hospitality Association and the Education Foundation, something that we’re all very proud of, uh, and an incredible program, uh, providing scholarships. I think, if I remember correctly, I think they gave away about a million dollars last year in scholarships to hospitality, uh, uh, emerging Hospitality Talent. Um, you know, our team loves to participate in the ProStart event that we do here in Tennessee. That’s a, uh, a hospitality event where, uh, students from local high schools come in and put together restaurant concepts and do culinary events. And we have all of our corporate staff loves to go over there and judge the competitions and work with the, the young high school students that are looking to get into careers in hospitality. You know, it’s just something that’s very close to our heart and something that’s very important to us. And it’s also, you know, it’s, it’s our future. These are the people that are gonna be working for, for us down the road. They’re gonna be the people that we’re judging at these competitions that are in high school now, two or three years from now are gonna be working at our front desk or doing our breakfast service or, you know, bartending in our hotels. So, you know, it’s important that we give them the best leg up that we can right now, especially in going into this industry as we face so many challenging time from, uh, staffing and other issues that are coming up. So we feel supporting the, the young hoteliers and the people that are interested in, in this profession is very, very important to us. Additionally, we, we like to get out and participate with local charities. Our corporate office does quarterly, uh, charity events with, uh, you know, second Harvest Food Bank or going out to clean up, you know, local nature parks and things like that. Um, we just feel it’s very important that we give back to our community. And we, we also instill that in our hotels, you know, whether it’s, you know, Fairfield and their partnership with, uh, habitat for Humanity and encouraging our teams at our Fairfield to, to follow along with what the brand’s direction is and how important it is to support those organizations. Or, you know, our early adoption of programs like Clean the World that, you know, we implemented back when they were first emerging back in 2012. And, you know, we saw the potential to take, you know, unused, uh, bars of soap and things like that and, and have it be recycled and upcycled to, uh, third world countries where it could benefit and help people. So we just all feel it’s important that we give back, but really that, that stems a lot from the top down and Mr. Gibson’s commitment to, uh, the community and to, uh, furthering education and, and the young hoteliers that are emerging. So,
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, we got a whole, whole series dedicated to, you know, hospitality Campus crawl, where we go to these hospitality campuses and talk to administrators about, you know, the next, uh, generation of hotel professionals. Right? And, you know, this is something that’s very important to them is, is feeling a part of something, you know, seeing your organization be involved in charitable causes, so they feel like they’re doing, they feel a part of something that, so definitely ahead of the trend there. And, and I’m sure again, it’s, it definitely helping with staffing when you’re talking, uh, to young professionals about the opportunities that you have to contribute to really important causes like that. So thank you, Joe, to you and your team for doing that. You mentioned, you alluded to it earlier, travel Media Group, proud, proud partner of Gibson Hospitality Ventures for quite a while. And, you know, since the beginning, you know, we really recognized the importance and priority that you put to having a strong online presence and reputation. Something that, obviously as a hotel marketing podcast, we preach all the time, right, of having a really strong digital impression. Why is having that strategic digital marketing so critical for hotel management companies today and connecting with owners, investors, and guests?
Joseph Grieco:
Well, I mean, as you know, with most owners and investors, just to, to be blunt, it’s, it’s usually about top line revenue and, and bottom line profit. And so it’s always important that we find a digital strategy that works both for the property and that the ownership group will sign off on. So, uh, not all hotels have the same budget to work with, and, uh, not all digital marketing spend is the same across all of our different hotels. And when you operate a variety of extended stay, select and full service properties, not all strategies can be the same. So it’s important that we craft solutions for each property individual, and we work with the owners and the investors in those hotels to determine what their priorities are and explain to them, you know, the, the benefits of using partners like yourself or the disadvantages if they choose to go a different direction and not spend those dollars. So, you know, obviously today everyone’s booking online through the various channels, but all those same people aren’t just looking at your presence in one place. They’re, they may start on brand.com or hotels.com, but they’re gonna look at your social media presence, they’re gonna look at your reviews across the web, and it’s important that you, you showcase and tell a story of what your hotel has to offer. But it’s also important that that message is consistent across all your channels in order to be successful. You know, at Gibson, we really appreciate our partnership with Travel Media Group to help manage that online reputation on a daily basis. You know, we look at our guest feedback and what our guests are saying about us and our competitors, and that gives us a competitive advantage over a lot of the other management companies out there having partnerships with teams like, like yours. And it’s also important that we work with the brands to funnel more traffic through brand.com, through various promotions and through our online and digital media strategy. So, you know, when you look at the spend that companies like Expedia and hotels.com have to try and get you to, to book your property on their site and take their piece of the pie, it’s important that we’re very strategic with how we spend our dollars. We know we can’t compete with them, but if we are doing the right things and we’re being strategic about how we spend our money, we can definitely push that traffic more toward the direct channels and, and help improve overall bottom line, uh, for those owners and investors. And that’s where we see the true return, you know, being able to, to take care of those assets and to continue to maintain highly profitable hotels for our owners. So that way down the road, they, when when they’re ready to build the next one, we’re the first people that they call. So, you know, very important to us that, like any hotel organization, all those gears need to be running in, in Synchrony. They, they all rely on each other. So if we don’t have the, the correct digital marketing presence and the correct team working on our, our digital marketing, then our revenues are gonna fall. Our profits are gonna fall, our owners aren’t gonna be happy with us, and it’s just a cascading effect from there. So
Ryan Embree:
Certainly a snowball effect, and you know, it, it is about effectively telling your story online, right? For as much effort as we put on the operation side and, you know, service and, and, and experiences that we’re trying to create and memorable experiences that we’re trying to create for our guests, if for some reason that’s not perceived online, that can get lost. And that’s a scary thought for a lot of hotels of putting so much effort and energy to the onsite operations in that story. Just not being told. Can’t wait to see and hear the story being told with those, those Sports illustrated hotels. I’m sure you won’t have to search very hard for some good social media content. So let me know when those are up. We’ll, we’ll make sure to give it a follow. Now, one of the lines from Gibson’s Mission online reads, fostering Professional Growth for our team members. We talked about it on this episode, we talked about it in past episodes. Uh, it’s kind of a, every other news article seems about hospitalized, talking about this staffing shortage, uh, and labor shortage we have in hospitality right now. What creative ways have you been able to combat in this headwind and use the words of your mission for recruiting and retention? Uh,
Joseph Grieco:
Sure. Um, I wouldn’t say it’s really creative, unfortunately, but I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s getting back to the basics and the most important thing that you have to deal with in today’s market with, with the staffing shortages and everything that we’re facing. The, so I would say the most important thing for us when it comes to dealing with the current staff shortage has to be our staff retention. Uh, it’s been critical for us to be able to deal with the current situation with the labor market for us having a very low turnover ratio and being able to, to promote those staff members from within to continue to encourage them to grow their career and to grow their career within the Gibson organization. That’s really been the key for us. Back when I was at gm, I used to always say that the, the best employees that you have are gonna be the ones that your other employees bring to your staff, uh, because they’re not gonna bring somebody on who’s gonna bring the whole team down. You know, they’re gonna want staff members that are gonna be there to work just as hard as they are and to, to make sure that the job gets done on time. So, you know, really that staff retention, utilizing your internal staff and their networks to continue to grow your staff is very important. But promoting from within, that’s, that’s really always been a, a huge key for us when it comes to dealing with the shortages that we have in the industry and being able to maintain solid management and leadership teams. You know, unfortunately, the hourly staff, there’s, there’s turnover there like anywhere else, and you’re gonna have it. But if you can retain your management staff and your key team members and your leadership team and keep that culture alive at your hotel and be able to, to have people who are able to train the new people coming in and teach them properly on the way to, to do things, too often we turn over staff and we just throw people into the wolves and don’t provide enough training to them. You know, we feel as an organization that it’s very important that our team gets the proper training. You know, that staff member’s a lot more likely to stay if they have comfort and are acclimated with the position they’re in before you stick ’em out there on a four to 11 shift by themselves with no help and a hundred check-ins.
Ryan Embree:
So, right. Well, you know, and, and more, more likely to also come back, you know, there’s a lot of staff members out there that might jump at the opportunity to go to another hotel, but if you gave them the proper foundation and training, there’s an, there’s a chance that they might come back to you and serve you better in their next time around. You know, those Boomerang employees that we talk about all the time and, and you got a lot of stuff working for you over there, right? You’ve got opportunity with a lot of stuff in the development pipeline, and you got already a lot of stories of people, you know, even like yourself, Joe, that have started one place and ended up, you know, you were talking about all those corporate members, you know, starting at the line level or on property and making their way somewhere else. Showing and illustrating a path to growth is gonna be absolutely crucial right now during this. And it seems like you guys have done a great job of that. I would also say the social media side of things, just like guests are gonna be trying to hear that story and figure out what it’s like on your property. I’ve talked about it on this podcast, this younger generation. They’re doing the same thing on looking on the employee side. What, what does a day in the life look for me? Look at this fantastic pool look, they’re recognizing some of their staff members on social media. That could be me in a couple months if, if, if I do my job right? So these are all ways that I think, you know, obviously you’ve been able to leverage, but, uh, a lot of hoteliers to be on the lookout for, you know, and, and, and make sure that, first of all, if you, if you had an organization, you’ve got those stories in, in place and you’re sharing them with your employees, but if you’re also a hotel employee, you know, ask for the opportunity. See what, get to know that senior leadership team and their hospitality journey. How did they get to where they were? And if they came up through the org, the same organization that certainly says something and, and should tell you something there. So, covered a lot of ground on this episode. Joe, thank you so much. We know you got, you’re very, very busy over there with all these projects you got that you’re juggling. So thank you again for taking the time. Any final thoughts before we wrap up today? I
Joseph Grieco:
Would just say, you know, we’re, we’re, we’re very grateful for our partnership for you with, with you guys at Travel Media Group and, um, you know, we’re very excited about some continued organic growth that we’re gonna have here at Gibson Hotels. Um, you know, very selective growth as we talked about as we earlier. But, you know, we definitely feel that, uh, working with the right teams, the right owners, the right investors, the right brands, uh, you know, we’re, you’re gonna see some incredible growth from, from Gibson Hotels in the next, uh, in the next few years within the full service, the boutique soft and experiential brands. Uh, look forward to talking to you in the future about some other opportunities that we have and, and the, the additional growth we have coming at Gibson Hotels.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, we’re excited. All, all eyes are on over there and you know, it, it’s a very reciprocal feeling. You know, we love working with, uh, hotel managements like Gibson Hospitality Ventures that see just such a strategic and amazing growth and being part of their story, right? Our success is your success and vice versa. So we’re really excited for what you have cooking over there, uh, at Gibson Hospitality Ventures. We’ll continue to keep an eye on and hopefully, uh, you know, I can visit one of these new properties here soon and maybe we’ll be doing an episode from one of these, uh, sports Illustrated universities. Uh, fingers crossed. So thank you so much. That was great. Look forward to it. Alright. Look forward to it. Well, thank you so much for Joe, uh, for jumping on the Suite Spot. Thank you all for listening and we will talk to you next time. Alright, thank you Ryan. To join our loyalty program, be sure to subscribe and give us a five star reading on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host, Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.
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40min
August 07, 2024 143 – TMG Hospitality Trailblazers: Shruti Buckley
TMG Hospitality Trailblazers continues with the Senior Vice President & Global Brand Leader of Hampton by Hilton, Shruti Buckley!
In this celebratory episode, Shruti joins the Suite Spot to discuss the 40-year anniversary of Hampton by Hilton by taking a look back on the brand’s origins and where the franchise is headed in the near future with exciting expansion plans and technological innovations.
Tune in now!
Episode Transcript
Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio.
Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree. We’ve got another great episode for you today continuing our TMG Hospitality Trailblazers series. If this is your first time, this series is all about the people and groups that are pushing our industry, our great industry forward, and I have such a special guest here to celebrate another impressive and awesome milestone. Shruti Gandhi Buckley brand leader of Hampton by Hilton. Shruti, thank you so much for joining me on the Suite Spot today.
Shruti Buckley :
Well, thank you for having me, Ryan. I’m really excited about our conversation.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, it is exciting. And before we get into that, some of that exciting news and the exciting, incredible milestone that this brand has hit. Let’s talk to you, Shruti, this is your first time on the Suite Spot. We love hearing stories from hospitality professionals, the webs and weaves of how people got into hospitality, how it kind of infused into their DNA, as we have heard so much in our industry. Share with us a little bit about your experience and the journey that led you to Hampton by Hilton.
Shruti Buckley :
Yeah, of course. It’s really interesting. I had somewhat of a unique path into hospitality, but at the same time, I actually had some exposure at a very young age. My uncle used to own a hotel in New Jersey, and I actually used to spend my summers there helping out at the hotel, sort of understanding the guest piece of it behind the scenes, stacking the coke machine and folding towels, things like that. And that’s when I was very young in elementary school. Years went by and when I graduated from college, I actually started my career in consumer product brand management and marketing. So I led global brands and businesses in a variety of different industries. So I started my career out in the food industry with Nestle. I then moved to Luxury cosmetics and I worked for Unilever and Estee Lauder and Chanel. And then I loved to joke with my friends that I traded in my Jimmy Chews for Converse sneakers and Birkenstocks and actually made my way back to D.C. which is where I’m originally from, to work for National Geographic, believe it or not. So I went from Chanel to Nat Geo. They had a very large product division where they had branded merchandise and retail, and I had a really great opportunity to work there for many years leading many of those efforts on the product side. And being in DC as you know, it’s known as the hospitality capital of the world, actually had several friends that were in the hospitality industry and for a few years they kept saying, Shruti, come talk to us. We think you’d be a really great addition to the team. You’ve got really interesting strategic brand background. A lot of our folks are on the operations side, and it would be really interesting just to talk to you to see where this might go. And that is actually what led me into hospitality. So I actually started that part of my career with one of Hilton’s competitors just down the street, in fact, for many years running one of Hampton’s competitors. And I did that for eight years. But candidly, after chasing Hampton for that many years, I said, well, if I can’t beat Hampton, I might as well join them. And was really fortunate seven years ago when Hilton called and was able to make my way to this fantastic company and lead, what many would call is the best brand in the industry. And I’ve been doing that for seven years and recently took on oversight for the our newest brand called Spark.
Ryan Embree:
Well, I’m sure you learned a lot competing against the brand too, right? Like I’m sure that gave you a unique perspective to be able to come in and probably gave you some insightful knowledge being on the other side of it. But I wanna go back to where your hospitality career started, and I can’t overlook that enough. The cool part about our industry is we’re all travelers from as young as we can walk, right? And hotels are such a magical place when we’re young and we get to travel somewhere different. So to be a part of that story and to see families which I’m sure Hampton over the years has invited, you know, hundreds of thousands if not millions of guests in to have some of those incredible memories. And that’s what we’re here to celebrate, right? This is a 40 year milestone for this brand. Congratulations to you and your team. I’m sure that the celebrations are not gonna stop, but, share with our audience a little bit about the history and backstory. It’s so unique to kind of talk about these brands and how they come and the ideas and how they’ve evolved over time.
Shruti Buckley :
Well, thank you, Ryan. This is actually one of my favorite topics. You know, being a brand enthusiast, it’s really fascinating for me to see a brand like Hampton 40 years young and how it’s been able to sustain this incredible legacy of leadership for that long. In fact, when you think about the world of brands, right across all industries, there really are very few brands that haven’t had a lot of ups and downs, right? Hampton has been this steady and consistently delivered against performance for almost throughout its entire 40 years of its life. And you know what started out, many folks don’t actually realize this, but Hampton actually started out as a small kind of roadside motel brand, right? With exterior corridors, and and more along kind of the highways of America. And as time went on, Hampton was actually able to move up market and eventually created what we now call the upper mid-scale category. You know, in the eighties when you, you think about that time there were, there were full service hotels, and then there were economy hotels, and there really wasn’t much in in between that. And I had to realize, hey, you know what? Guests actually are willing to pay more for an upgraded experience. We believe that to be the case. And so over time, through years of innovations like introducing free hop breakfast, the waffle free wifi, um, creating more functional and elevated design, and then taking risks, like introducing the industry’s first a hundred percent money back guarantee, and then keeping a really close king focus on service and hospitality, Hampton was able to move up market to create a better product, a better guest experience, and that ultimately drove higher rates and incredible guest loyalty. So, you know, when you think about this incredible legacy, right? It’s, it’s sort of a longstanding commitment of innovation, quality, consistency, and service. And that’s really been kind of the secret sauce behind creating this power brand. And you know, you, Ryan, you asked earlier or you made mention, you know, when you’re running a competitor, you’re always looking at, um, or you’re running a brand, you’re always looking at who your competitors are. And I studied Hampton, right? I wrote right papers on Hampton, um, would have to present to my last company on why Hampton continued to be such a leader. And it was those pieces of the pie that I just, I just talked about, right? That quality, innovation, the commitment to consistency, that, that real sort of breathing life into service and what that meant in that kind of mid-tier product. And that has really created this unique brand that has become a leader and stayed the leader, you know, for almost four decades. And Ryan, what is really great is that’s driven our growth. We are now 3000 hotels strong across four continents, soon to be five and in 41 countries.
Ryan Embree:
Well, it’s absolutely incredible because right in, in the theme of what this spirit, uh, of the series is all about, which is TMG trailblazers, it really sounds like the brand itself was a trailblazer and pioneer into that upper, that segment there and really kind of carved out itself. And probably is why it is such a staple today. And you know, as you’ve mentioned, Trudy, that you know, 40 years is no easy feat. You have to have buy-in from a lot of stakeholders. And we’ve learned that with the good brand, it has to be the, the guests, the consumers, right? But it also has to be the developers, the owners that are interested in actually building these hotels, right? So why do you believe there’s just been this synergy between this brand and why guests and, and developers and owners alike all love it so much?
Shruti Buckley :
Yeah, you know, it’s interesting, it’s almost creating this balance between all of the different stakeholders. You know, we’re working and as we think about the brand and all the different things that we do to drive brand performance for the guests, for the owners, for the developers, there are many things that sort of come top of mind. I think first of all, there’s been a consistent investment in Hampton’s guest experience, right? Through the innovation that I talked about through marketing and a hyper focus on service. So we invest a lot in our service experience and training of our team members, and that really makes our guests a priority. And that’s really what has garnered unparalleled guest loyalty. And it’s why Hampton has more five star social media reviews than any other brand and why our guests are willing to pay a premium. So that’s the guest side of it. But what’s interesting is that loyalty and that desire, or the willingness to pay more for great quality then has driven really great market share and RevPAR premiums. And that’s why we’re recognized as the number one hotel brand franchise, right? The operational models really strong, the cost to build is favorable, and all of that drives great returns and margin performance for our owners, right? So they work in combination for each other. And on the development side, we continue to deliver efficiency with our prototypes. So in fact, we just launched, we’re super excited, a new North American prototype and renovation package both for the Hampton Inn and the Inn in Suites. And it’s more flexible, more favorable and the cost to build. And so then that drives, the fan favorite from a development standpoint, and so we, our goal is to always set the bar and continue to raise that bar, you know, for all the various stakeholders that we have.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, I love to hear, even 40 years later, there’s still evolution, there’s still innovation going with this brand and, and especially adapting to, some of the things that you just said. A lot of developers are probably just, they’re rubbing their hands together because that’s what they need right now. We’re going through unfortunately, a staffing shortage right now. Guests are looking for more flexibility. Developers are looking for different ways to build and obviously with rising construction costs. So to be able to still have a legacy brand that everyone knows that reputation, everyone knows what to expect when you come to a Hampton, but also have these new things that are still adapting to where we are in 2024 today, I think probably puts you in a great position for future success and growth. So, you know, for me personally, Hampton is synonymous with a great stay and equally great breakfast. You brought up the famous Hampton Waffle. I mean, that is so cool. You know, there’s 40 years of a brand, but there’s a couple singular things I think I associate with Hampton, still a lot of guests do. One being this waffle. Can you talk a little bit more about this staple breakfast item that’s really been associated with the brand and how social media has really contributed to its popularity. I know you guys definitely lean into that over there and embrace that.
Shruti Buckley :
We absolutely do. And the waffle is definitely, one of the fan favorites and certainly something that has become very synonymous with the brand. So, while service and consistency really remain the heroes at Hampton, breakfast is something that is hugely important to our guests. We actually have over an 85% take rate on our fabulous breakfast. So it’s really important that we double down on high quality food items like the scrambled eggs, the yogurt, fruit, bacon, other delicious protein items and healthy items that we have. But our famous Belgium waffle was introduced in the industry as an industry first in 2009, but our favorite famous Belgium waffle was introduced as an industry first in 2009. And as I mentioned, it’s become synonymous with the Hampton brand. You know, when you think about a waffle, right, what do you think about it makes you smile, right? They’re fun, they’re warm, they’re tasty, and kids and adults alike, they love that actual ceremony of making the waffles and that smell of the waffles that kind of wafts through the hotel definitely creates an appetite for all of our guests. So, it was really important as we think about breakfast, how do we continue to make the Hampton brand relevant across all of our guest touchpoints? But breakfast being a really important part, we started to focus on the waffle, right? So we always look every year at our breakfast program on, what are things that we wanna remove? What are the things we wanna improve on? And you know, a couple of years ago we said the waffle, you know, how do we invigorate the waffle and do something new with it? And this idea of waffle flavors came up and we said, well, let’s test it out. Let’s see what happens. So in fall of 2022, we actually introduced pumpkin spice, waffle. Pumpkin spice, you see it all over the place during the fall season, whether it’s coffee flavors, all different types of things. And we said, there could be something here. And it was an instant favorite Ryan. People loved it, and it created a buzz. It gave guests and our hotel team members something fun to talk about. And it became an instant hit on social media. So much so that even Paris Hilton came to us and became a fan and now is featured in our social media waffle campaign, which is really great. So since then we’ve been introducing new flavors, several times a year, including red velvet that we’ve done for Valentine’s Day strawberry and apple cinnamon. We currently have the fabulous lemon waffle just in time for summer, refreshing lemon and more to come. So it’s really been an exciting journey that the waffle has gone on for Hampton.
Ryan Embree:
It’s, it’s so cool. I love that we just talked about like waffles for a couple minutes, but it’s so important and you know, hats off to you and your team on the creativity, because you’re right, there is a ceremony there of, as someone who is not the best person at cooking, to just to be able to pour that and be a part of that experience, I think that subconsciously does something for you. And I think it makes it a part of your hotel stay.
Shruti Buckley :
It does. And actually what was really nice is there’s a service element because oftentimes they have a breakfast attendant that’s actually there to assist our guests with actually making a waffle. And that’s a great opportunity to strike up a conversation or ask how is your stay, welcome them to the hotel, thank them for their business. So it actually was a really nice opportunity for us to create a dialogue with our guests centered around the waffle.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, no, absolutely. Brilliant. So a lot of positive side effects of the Hampton Waffle and excited to see what the new flavor you and your team might have up your sleeve there, but, you know, another trademark unique to Hampton, and you brought this up, Shruti was the one hundred percent Hampton guarantee. And I truly believe that it was this campaign that really went a long way in marrying the Hampton by Hilton brand with the exceptional customer service that you’ve been talking about. Can you talk a little bit more about this initiative and what this means for the brand and its reputation?
Shruti Buckley :
Yeah, sure. Of course. You know, initially, the Hampton, one hundred percent guarantee was launched in the late nineties, and it was really intended to give consumers confidence in a category of hotels that at that point in time wasn’t really known for reliability. And the idea was to create something that essentially communicated that we at Hampton are so confident that you as a guest will have a great experience at our hotel, that we’re willing to refund you a full night’s stay if we don’t live up to your expectation. And what this did is it got consumers talking, it got new consumers into the door, and it gave consumers confidence they could trust Hampton. But more importantly, the one hundred percent hands and guarantee actually became the bedrock of our on property team culture. So the guarantee really motivated our hotel teams to kind of double down on service and cleanliness and commit to creating an experience that was truly best in class. And it really created, you know, what we like to call a service culture movement within the brand that became so strong that we even gave it a name, Ryan, we call it Hamptonality. And it’s really how Hampton has become this beacon of humanity, right? It connects people of all different races and cultures and backgrounds, and our culture is about taking care of each other and also taking care of the guests. Because when you think about it, if your team members are happy and they’re in a great environment and they are well cared for, they’re in a better position to take great care of their guests. And then over time, what we found is it was less about money back. What our guests were telling us is, you know what, we just want you to make it right for us. And so we evolved from a hundred percent guarantee to what we call the happiness guarantee. Making you happy makes us happy. And again, it’s this, it’s creating an emotional experience for our guests and creating a real dialogue and a relationship between the team members and the guests. And it’s been a home run. That’s really what has created a big differentiation for Hampton, is that true commitment by each one of our over one hundred thousand team members around the globe, to delivering against the guarantee.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, another trailblazing. I would say, a point in this brand’s history. I would’ve loved to have been in the room when this idea was pitched or even maybe said to some of those individual stakeholders when this was first rolled out. But I think you’re right, Shruti, two of the things that we’ve learned on this podcast today is, maybe some side effects of these initiatives. It had just as much effect on the guests as it did on the employees of Hampton by Hilton and the brand itself. And then overall, I mean, that led it to a place of success and growth that we’ve seen today. So it’s so cool to kind of see how these little changes here, you think it’s gonna have some sort of impact, but that impact might be much greater and, than you ever could have imagined there.
Shruti Buckley :
You’re absolutely right. And you know, when we rolled it out, we weren’t sure what the reception was gonna be. Certainly from owners, they were really concerned, right? Certainly from the guests, how would they react? But it’s been a home run and it’s something we’ve stayed committed to for the last three decades.
Ryan Embree:
It’s so cool to hear those stories, and I’ve had the pleasure now of interviewing, several Hilton brand leaders and some of the most key and fascinating takeaways I get from those conversations are the decision to either implement something like we’ve talked about, or sometimes the even more fascinating is when not to change something. When there was a decision that came down that said, you know, what we’re, we’re thinking about doing this and then reacting to either, whether it be owner feedback or guest feedback about like, no, this is one of my favorite parts of my experience or my stay. Do you have any stories like that with the, I’m sure we’ve talked through some of them, but any stories like that about some of these changes based on guest feedback or owner feedback that have really contributed to where the brand is today?
Shruti Buckley :
There are many examples. You know, it’s interesting. There’s definitely a delicate dance between the guests need and the owner need. And, and candidly, Ryan, it’s become even more delicate as costs have increase. So we have to be really deliberate about the decisions that we make. And, Hampton is considered a premium brand, right? That our guests are willing to pay more for. So we really have to do our due diligence to know what guests want, what they’re willing to pay for, and then how that is gonna translate to, market share and RevPAR performance for our owners. And I’ll give you two examples very briefly. One is a breakfast refresh. So it was not just the waffle, but it was sort of the entire program of breakfast. We knew that was one of the most important parts of a guest day, and they actually choose Hampton.
Shruti Buckley :
Many guests choose Hampton because of the high quality breakfast, but the competition was catching up, right? So we said, look, we need to continue to elevate the program. How do we do it in a way that is going to meet our guest needs, but also make sure we don’t drive costs? And so that was something, uh, that we started in 2019, but every, every couple of years we’re, we are actually looking at that program and refreshing it on a regular basis, but we’re, there’s a little bit of push and pull, right? What do we touch, do we not touch? And then how does that, that impact the actual cost? But what we find is when we do those things in a deliberate way, it does drive loyalty and then it drives performance for our owners, which is great. Um, another recent example, I’m really excited that this year for Hampton, we were able to launch a new hotel prototype and renovation design for both the Inn, Hampton Inn and Hampton Inn Suites. And what we were able to do was create actually a more functional design package and more modern decor, uh, which would definitely appeal to guests, but we did it in a more cost efficient way to really drive bottom line performance for our owners. So I think those are two exciting recent innovations that were guest led, but uh, ultimately the operational component and the cost component ended up really being very in line with, you know, owner margin performance and driving revenue for those hotels.
Ryan Embree:
Absolutely. Well, those are the win-wins that you’re, that you’re looking for, right? And, you know, it helps, I will say having over 3000 hotels and, and, and hundreds of thousands of guests coming through your door. So you have a big sample size of if you do need to make a change, if you’re hearing feedback from guests online, whether it be online reviews, social media, keeping an ear, you know, on the pulse of your guests. And we preach that all the time on this podcast, you know, whether you’re a, a giant brand, a collection of hotels, or even a single hotel, you know, your guests are really printing out a, a roadmap to that perfect guest experience, but you have to be open and willing to hear them. And some changes may be easier than others, right? But a lot of it needs to be thoughtful due diligence, uh, and very, very data-driven, which, you know, at Hilton, you guys do a fantastic job of. And I’m sure, like I said, you know, there’s a lot more stories I think every single time I come into a hotel. Now, I’m trying to think through if I, you know, I I, if I’m a brand leader, you know, why was this put here? Why was it everything in a hotel has a reason for why it’s somewhere I’m finding, which is really, really cool to see if you look through the lens like that. So, so I’m sure Shruti after 40 years, you know, you have a lot to be excited about, obviously the big milestone here. But are there any recent projects or developments, you know, you talk about the new prototype, but any projects that are going on right now that really kind of bubble to the top when it comes to Hampton by Hilton for you,
Shruti Buckley :
You know, one development project that I’m really excited about, you know, as I mentioned earlier, we are in 41 countries and four continents. We are actually currently building the very first Hampton in the continent of Africa, which is very exciting in South Africa. Uh, which, uh, we are looking forward to opening a little later this year. So what to me is so wonderful about the continued expansion of this brand is the way that we can continue to really deliver the spirit of hospitality to new people and different people and bringing these communities together. And, you know, whenever I’m talking to the team members, we always talk about not only taking care of each other and taking care of our guests, but also taking care of our communities. A lot of our hotels do an amazing job with outreach and, um, raising money for various charities and not-for-profits within their communities. And by expanding to a new continent, uh, you know, we’re able to now reach a whole new audience, um, and really deliver that spirit of hamptonality to new people, which is really exciting for us.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, that’s in, that’s incredible. Five, five continents. I mean, in the spirit of the Olympics that are going on right now, you know, so many countries, that’s really, really cool. So congratulations to, uh, you and your team on, on that, that achievement. Now, Hilton, like I I mentioned, very innovative company, you know, received numerous awards and recognitions for its innovation and technology. Love to hear how we talked about cost are rising right now. There’s a staffing shortage. Some of these can be improved with technology, whether it’s on the guest side, guest technology, or even on the employee side with technology, implementing that into everyday jobs and tasks. Any technology that we’re exploring or recent updates by the Hampton, by Hilton brand, um, when it comes to looking to improve the guest experience using and leveraging technology,
Shruti Buckley :
You know, we’re always looking for ways to improve the experience through technology. Uh, Ryan, I won’t share some of the things that we’re currently working on, but I am excited to share something that we actually have introduced that is live in the marketplace to support the growing need of, you know, for frictionless travel and introduce easier ways for guests to engage with hotel team members. We are expanding mobile messaging. Um, we’re expanding that platform to all of our over 7,000 Hilton hotels. Hampton being of course, the largest brand, uh, partaking in that. And we are getting really great guest feedback from mobile messaging, right? It’s allowing us to have a dialogue with the guests. They’re able to instantly send us a note. We’re able to respond very quickly. And that’s been really exciting for us. Um, and, and this new system, it was actually developed in partnership with ksu.
Shruti Buckley :
We actually had several hotels that were leveraging it already. And because we had received such great feedback and the, the data supported the need and the desire to have that, both from a guest standpoint and an owner standpoint, we were able to roll that out to all of our brands. So that’s something that for Hampton specifically, you know, how do you take, um, as people are bypassing the front desk with another, yet technology that Hilton was the forefront of with Digital Key, we now have the ability to still have an interaction with the guest through instant messaging, right? So we talked about breakfast as being a really important touch point for Hampton, and I would say digital messaging being another really important touch point, and, uh, just another way that we can, you know, service our guests and provide a really great guest experience in, in, you know, by leveraging technology.
Ryan Embree:
Yeah, no, another brilliant example of, again, adapting to the times, right? I think, I think guests are gonna become more and more comfortable with that type of communication rather than, you know, picking up the physical phone that’s in the, the hotel or even coming down to the front desk. They want maybe that, uh, more seamless communication. So another great example of a byproduct of you create this one amazing guest, uh, technology with the keyless entry, but then that removes a piece of hospitality, which everyone loves, right? Everyone, you know, come to the front desk, you check in, you ask why you’re here, you know, that now all of a sudden that removes and now finding a different way and a different path to get in front of the guest keeps you very, very connected to the guest and I’m sure has profound impact on the brand and its communication moving forward. So as we wrap up here today, Shruti, let’s fast forward, we’ll time travel five years down the line, we’re, we’re celebrating, uh, Hampton by Hilton’s 45th anniversary at that point, obviously in five continents at that point. But what’s your vision for the brand five years down the line? If, if I had to ask you today,
Shruti Buckley :
Oh my goodness, five years down the line, you know, is to continue to deliver the service experience that keeps us on top of the game, right? So our objective is, you know, how do we continue to deliver great product, great experience to drive consumer loyalty, to drive owner returns, so we can continue to be the number one brand for owners from a franchising perspective and the number one brand in the upper mid-scale category for consumers to choose. And my hope is right, as we, in fact, we have the largest pipeline in the industry of over 800 hotels that will come online. So by then, you know, five years from now, I think we’re probably looking at around 4,000 hotels. Um, maybe even another continent who knows. But more importantly, you know, in, in a world that sometimes seems a little divisive, I think what is really exciting about the world that we live in, Ryan Hospitality is, and with a brand that is at the scale of Hampton, is that we truly can make meaningful connections and bring people together. And I think that to me is how all of us in this industry can have a positive impact is by creating these moments, building connection, right? People travel regardless of the background you come from, and they’re often all staying in a hotel together. And, and there are opportunities, uh, to bridge those gaps that sometimes exist. And that to me is what’s really exciting. So continued leadership, continued success, and continue to be the number one brand for owners and for consumers.
Ryan Embree:
Well, very well said, Shruti. And hopefully, uh, a lot more hotels and a lot more, uh, different flavored waffles, uh, as well for us to try for me and, and all of, all of our Hampton by Hilton loyal guests out there. So thank you so much for joining me on the Suite Spot. What an incredible celebration of 40 years, uh, Hampton by Hilton and this brand. And it sounds like, uh, this is just the beginning for, for you and your team. So congratulations again Shruti.
Shruti Buckley :
Thank you very much, Ryan. Appreciate it.
Ryan Embree:
Alright. It’s a pleasure speaking with you. And thank you all for listening to the Suite Spot, we’ll talk to you next time. To join our loyalty program, be sure to subscribe and give us a five star ratingon iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.
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32min
July 17, 2024 142 – Hospitality Campus Crawl: Florida Atlantic University
Join the Suite Spot in this episode of TMG Hospitality Campus Crawl featuring Florida Atlantic University!
FAU Professor, Dr. Peter Ricci, joins the episode to shine a light on the FAU hospitality program and tells viewers why it is one-of-a-kind and how it prepares its students for success in the hospitality industry.
Episode Transcript
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Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree, and this is the second part of our TMG Hospitality Campus Crawl series. If this is your first time listening to this brand new summer series, we just launched this, we’ve talked about it before. Right now we’re going through somewhat of a staffing shortage. We’re gonna get into that a little bit into this episode. But what we’re trying to accomplish with this particular series is talk to the people and places that are educating and preparing the next generation of hoteliers, the next generation of hospitality workforce. So, very excited to just move a little on up I 95 North to Boca Raton. Im a bring in my next Suite Spot guest, clinical professor and director Dr. Peter Ricci of FAU’s Hospitality and Tourism Management program. Dr. Ricci, thank you so much for joining the Suite Spot today.
Dr. Peter Ricci :
Great. Nice to be here. Thank you. So I started sitting back here so you can see my lovely FAU owl. Now I can, move in a little bit. Thanks for having me. I love to see you and I know you’re a Rosen grad. I did my doctorate there, so it’s great, great to spend some time with you.
Ryan Embree:
Well, you have, you’ve got such an extensive and unique journey and, and I was talking to you off camera, how about that is one of my favorite things about our industry is, you know, sometimes our hospitality journeys take us all over the world. Sometimes we fall into hospitality as a career. Typically we meet a couple mentors along the way. And for your particular journey, you’ve been kind of in and out of academia. Share with our audience a little bit about your journey and the path that led you to FAU.
Dr. Peter Ricci :
You know it’s interesting that I’m spending time with you today. Yesterday was 47 years since I moved to Florida. So I moved here as a little boy and tourism was a part of my life growing up. Always. because we had visited here first. My family also was in California, so we spent a lot of time traveling. And I’ve always had a love and passion for meeting people and traveling. But as a boy, you don’t realize that. You just think Florida’s cool because you can swim all the time and you can go play. And so my experience here growing up in middle and high school was fantastic. And, um, I started working as a teenager in a fine dining restaurant and happened to have an absolute amazing mentor who was a self-made millionaire and owned fine dining restaurants all over South Florida. And this was in the eighties when fine dining was all the rage with the flambe, tableside and fancy cocktails before they were called craft cocktails. And he was all about guest service. And of course I didn’t know what that meant at that time. He was just instilling me like an etiquette. I’m kind of a casual guy, but I wouldn’t say kind of, I’m a casual guy. I don’t like suits and ties, but I’m all about treating people with the utmost respect, welcoming them, feeling warmly about hospitality and inviting you into my environment. So hospitality was like a natural thing for me. Undergrad, I worked food and beverage all through college. I fell in love with what they call trip directing, where you would go on a trip as the liaison to the conference or the convention or the incentive group where they’re rewarding some travelers. And so I just had this passion for travel, thought I would go to law school, got in, didn’t like my first week. I didn’t even give it a chance. And, uh, wound up just doing my grad degree in tourism and recreation and parks and being in there ever since. I think my favorite part was the hotel side of my career, but I actually liked them all. I worked for Delta for about six months after my undergrad. That was the most rigorous, intensive, uh, interview process I’ve ever had in my life. I think I had seven or eight interviews plus an hour with a psychiatrist plus aptitude tests. I mean, it was an incredible thing to work at Delta Airlines in the eighties. And that experience to this day has helped me refine how I recruit and finding genuine hospitality people. So, you know how I wound up here. I wound up doing my doctorate at UCF University of Central Florida when the Rosen School was created. We didn’t say Rosen School for long. It became Rosen College shortly thereafter. ’cause we grew so quickly. But when Harris Rosen so generously offered dollars to create the Rosen School, they were looking for a lodging professor. And I had been teaching part-time, what we call adjunct teaching for more than a decade. And every place I opened a hotel or I would babysit a gm, a general manager or whatever the case was, I would teach while I was living in that community. So I thought I had thought about doing a doctorate, but not really too much. But I did it and I taught at Rosen at the same time for about five years. Um, and then I went back to hotels and I was very happily back doing regional work in the southeast. And FAU asked me to adjunct. I fell in love with it here, and I’ve been here ever since. I think I’ve been here since 2007. So I’m not really good at math. I’m a typical hospitality guy, so a long time. But I love it. And the reason I liked it here and I came here is that we’re in the business school model. So our curriculum’s rather rigorous. And I felt that’s what I was missing in my own journey because I have a bachelor’s in sociology. My master’s is in recreational studies, which is tourism, recreation and parks. And I didn’t get the quantitative training at the University of Florida that I should have because I hated my accounting class. Then I’m thrust into my first hotel job. I worked at Convention Bureau for a couple years, but my first hotel job as director of sales, they were throwing the star report at me and I had never heard of it. I didn’t know how to do data analytics, you know, so I had to learn all that on the fly. So I know it’s a long answer to your question, but I have a quantitative side, but prefer my hospitality side. And I think the future leaders of this industry need both now.
Ryan Embree:
Absolutely. They do. And, and we’re gonna talk about how you and FAU are preparing that hospitality workforce to have that well-rounded experience before going into hospitality. Because you absolutely do and the trends are ever changing. But before we kind of talk about that, you know, I wanna go back to the beginning of your story. And I think it’s so fascinating when people talk about, because we are in an industry that we experienced before, we’re in the workforce, right? We’re travelers before we work in hospitality. And a lot of those childhood memories might be traveling to that hotel and having that magical experience. And it’s cool to be on the other side now to be able to offer that to people and know that maybe it’s that one hotel experience meeting a GM or a DOS at a property could inspire them on the road to hospitality. And that’s kind of what this is all about. But, you know, from that to where we are today and people that do choose hospitality or what we’ve heard is a lot of people fall into hospitality and we’re trying to change that narrative. We want people to think of hospitality as a career because it is such an amazing industry, as you’ve pointed out with so many opportunities. Share a little bit about FAU’s background and the program that you have at the Hospitality and Tourism program and what it kind of makes it unique maybe from other programs in the state or even the country.
Dr. Peter Ricci :
You know, the most unique feature is our location and in hospitality it’s location, location, location. Well, when I grew up here in south Florida, FAU was a rather young university. It was started in the 1960s and originally it was going to be part of the state university system, the SUS our model for the upper division. So you would go to a two year school now called state colleges, sometimes community colleges, and then you would come to FAU. So in high school, several of my friends wanted to go to FAU because IBM was headquartered here at that time, but they had to go to Broward College first. At that time called Broward Community College. I went away to University of Florida because I didn’t want to go to Broward College immediately and keep my same job. I wanted to try something else. Well, long behold, that two plus two model in the state university system never really materialized. And FAU became a four year school later on. But in my mind, it was not on my radar even though I had grown up here, if that makes sense. Fast forward later in life, they were building a hospitality program. I had the pleasure to get hired at University of Central Florida Rosen when we had 83 students. And I helped build the main campus up when we built the Rosen College and opened it near SeaWorld. And in the midst of iDrive and all the attractions, we were already up to about 1200 or 1300 students. My job was teaching the intro to hospitality courses at main campus and kind of orchestrating main campus to get hospitality awareness where we all started initially and make sure they kept going to the new building. And so I had an office at both of them. And what I liked about Rosen was the living laboratory of the environment. And what I like in particular about FAU is our environment here. Our location is probably the most unique you’ll find in the state. There are more private country clubs within a 30 mile radius of FAU, we’ve run estimates, and I think anywhere on the planet. We have the super high end resorts, yet we have very successful entrepreneurs who own 10 properties and do Airbnb. We have every level of restaurant you could imagine. We have yacht clubs, we have charter fishing entrepreneurs, we have casinos, we have cruise line headquarters, we have Expedia, we have everything. So the affluent Boca Raton community, which is one of the most affluent in the United States, provides this wealth of visitors and this wealth of a training lab to work in. And I look back to where I grew up in south Florida, about 20 minutes from where I’m sitting now. And that’s why I have this guest service inclination was because of the grooming I had in the high level of restaurants that I worked at. But I’ve carried that level of service to every type of environment, whether it was a casual Holiday Inn, an upscale intercontinental, whatever it was. And so I think our living laboratory location makes us probably the best anywhere. I mean, Miami and all its nightlife and success is within 45 minutes. You’ve got the wealth of Palm Beach and the world class breakers and Palm Beach and Four Seasons Palm Beach within 40 minutes the other way. And I see it in our students and our alumni. My alumni are more successful here in a shorter time than anywhere I’ve taught as an adjunct or a full-time. And when I was a hotel general manager and a regional vice president, I had the privilege to adjunct all over the place where we were opening properties. So in Tampa and Tallahassee at FSU and Gainesville, at UF and Miami at FIU I’ve taught all around and I was able to feel the vibe and feel the curriculum as a hotel employee, as a hotelier who was looking to not only teach part-time, but also to recruit. So I haven’t found anything like FAU, I think there’s probably a similar vibe in amenities and opportunities at FIU and Florida Gulf Coast, because Florida Gulf Coast has the affluent resorts and country clubs, but we’re all uniquely different. So that’s my long-winded tell you that it’s comes back to the old saying that you hear time and time again. Location, location, location.
Ryan Embree:
Well, what a benefit for the students to have almost an incubator right outside your classroom doors. Right? It’s almost an extension of the hospitality program. And we’re gonna talk about that, about how those relationships, and we talked about this on a previous episode, how it’s a really a win-win for everyone. I mean, the businesses that wanna hire from your university because of the programs and initiatives and coursework that you’re doing there sets them up perfectly. They’re familiar with the area. It’s truly a win-win. But you offer a number to match your experience. Dr. Ricci, you offer a number of certifications that not just students, but hospitality professionals can enroll in. And you know, some of these, I’ve actually heard firsthand, that you did these during the pandemic, which was very gracious of you and at a time when our industry especially was struggling. So thank you for that. Can you share a little bit about these programs and the importance of continuing education in our industry?
Dr. Peter Ricci :
Sure. You know, there’s a movement, and it’s been occurring for probably 30 years, where the value of a higher education degree has been questioned by many people. Is it worth the money? Should I get a bachelor’s? Is bachelor’s the only immediate pathway to a financial success? And historically, I mean, I grew up in the lower middle class family on government aid. So University of Florida was way outta my reach. If I didn’t get financial aid or scholarship, I never would’ve gone to University of Florida. And University of Florida and all our state schools in Florida are very inexpensive tuition wise. But you’re still gonna spend $10,000 to $80,000 whatever it takes, and is it worthwhile? So certificates and certifications over the past decade have become more and more popular. And then during covid, they just exploded. What I tell people now is buyer beware, you know, whatever the saying is, because you have to really know what the content is. Is it someone who just threw a certificate together and put it out there to profit, et cetera. At FAU, we have had a certificate since I came here many, many years ago. We used to do it in person. And it’s about lifelong learning. So there, the majority of our workforce is probably not going to pursue a bachelor’s. That’s probably 20% to 25% if I were to guess. So what about the 80% or the 70% or 60% that don’t do it? Well, they still need training. They need to feel engaged. They need to feel part of an industry. They need to learn how to do their jobs better. So certificates and certifications became an amazing way to get educated without the expense and the time of a formal degree. Now you think about the myriad ways you can study now online, in person, hybrid mixed modes. So a bachelor’s degree will always be there. It’s always important for those that want it. And it should be your own goal. It’s not a necessary ingredient to success. It helps you create your own discipline and time management. It helps expand your mind and helps you think across different ways of thinking and different subjects. But I wouldn’t say it’s the necessary roadmap to success. Now, having said that, do I feel that my undergraduate and MBA graduates are better prepared for their hospitality jobs? Absolutely. So if you know that you wanna be a chemical engineer, by all means do your bachelor’s in chemical engineering, you know that you wanna work for Hilton or JetBlue or one of the super high number of businesses in our field, get a business degree or better yet, get a business combination hospitality degree. So you’re prepared. Because going back to what you said earlier about our industry, we are a business. So I teach my faculty members here, we teach the business of hospitality. It doesn’t matter if you’re gonna go into accounting or finance, maybe you want to, you like playing with data and you’re gonna go, you’re gonna become the best revenue optimizer that exists. Maybe you are creative and you want to go into architecture and design and do new builds. There’s a job for everybody. So hospitality’s not really a silo thing. It’s everything. It’s marketing, it’s it’s communication, it’s graphic design, it’s travel planning. It’s entrepreneur more, more millionaire entrepreneurs come from hospitality space than any other. And every time I say that, that’s a fact that Carol Dover gave me a long time ago. She’s the president and CEO of the Florida Restaurant Lodging Association. If you think about that, it’s common sense. You’ve got Disney, you’ve got McDonald’s, you’ve got Boley, you’ve got all the brand names. Somebody created Target, somebody created Walmart, somebody created all these, and I lump everything, retail services, hospitality. But what underlies that is you need some business then because we still need to operate at a profit. So that’s kind of what we teach and how we teach, is being the best darn service provider you can be. Whether you’re gonna be a financial planner, whether you’re gonna work for Hilton Hotels and your path is a general manager, or whether you wanna open a chain of travel agencies, you know that it still requires the ingredients of business mixed with service acumen, if that makes any sense.
Ryan Embree:
It absolutely does. And I think that last answer I would clip and really show any perspective student. And we’re gonna actually tap you for some advice later on for some students. But for anyone that’s thinking about getting into to hospitality, I think what you just said over the last couple minutes perfectly describes why we love this industry. And I think certifications and certificates are a great way to just dabble into it as well and see if this is the right path for you, if it’s something that you show interest in. But you know, I would say to any hoteliers, hotel management companies that are, are listening to this, go to your frontline staff right now and ask what those college degrees and might not necessarily be hospitality. So even if you’re a student out there not on the hospitality track, you could find yourself in hospitality, which a lot of people do. And this education, this furthering education really comes into play there as Dr. Ricci’s talking about. So yeah, absolutely.
Dr. Peter Ricci :
And we’re just a fun business. I mean, why not do finance at Royal Caribbean Cruise line? And you know, no offense to my friends who work at banks, but rather than a boring bank or you know, why not do marketing for a zip line company? One of my MBA grads is now working for a cannabis dispensary that’s the largest in Florida, and he has an MBAA bachelor’s in marketing MBA with marketing and hospitality. And it was his service skills and his creativity that got him that job that he loves. So we teach the business of service and that applies to whatever the heck you’re gonna work in. I don’t care if you’re gonna own salons, if you wanna own your own piece to pizza brand, whatever it is, you still need business and you need people skills.
Ryan Embree:
They are such transferable skills. I mean, the old thing that everyone says is, oh, I’m gonna make my kids work in the service industry for a couple years to know what, what it’s like to be on the other side of that. There’s something to that, right? To serve people, whether it’s a restaurant working in a hotel, it just gives you those skills that that will stick with you. It gets you a different perspective and that’s what this is about. That’s what my next question’s about, because this series really has opened my eyes to the innovative ways today. I mean, I graduated more than a decade ago, and you know, I felt like it was, it was really well done at that time. But now the hands-on experience that, that these educators are giving students labs, like you talked about real world experience. Can you give me any examples of, of this within FAU’S curriculum of getting students out there and getting their hands on hospitality?
Dr. Peter Ricci :
Oh my God, that’s what we do best. Another reason we thrive. In order to get tenured in the university system, you must be a good researcher. But even my solid researchers have to have industry experience. So my entire cadre of faculty members, I could put them at a hotel and we would make a profitable. So I have a foodie, I have an analytics person, I have a sustainability person, you name it, right? So it comes from the people you hire. And I had the pleasure to build Rosen from ground up until I left and from here, from ground up until now. So I’ve been able to be very picky. And just like my interviews with Delta, I was very picky. Now the student feedback we get shows that the pickiness goes a long way because they love them, they learn from them. So I am all about experiential learning because if you can’t feel this business and know what it entails, then I don’t want you saying you’re gonna major in it. Right? So our first step was our internship requirement. Instead of what I had to do at the University of Florida, which I did not really find valuable. It was my senior year, I had to spend this is graduate school, not even undergrad. I had to spend a full semester, pay full tuition for 12 credit hours and go work for Marriott Hotels for $10 an hour. Now, at this point in my life, I was 22, I started working at 14 pretty much full time. I had at least seven years equivalent. I did not need to go to a place that would have a checklist every week where the boss would tell me, you fill it out, you put perfect, you fax it. Yes, faxing. because we didn’t have the camera phone then, right? So I found that very useless. So later in life when I wound up here, I said, we are in a living laboratory in Boca Raton. We have campuses in Jupiter, we have campuses in Davie and just outside Fort Lauderdale, we have downtown Fort Lauderdale. Our students are working. So I want them to go out and work in any job that they wanna try to see if the industry resonates with them. And that was our first step is you can either do an old school style internship or you can go out and get a job and count those hours as long as you show me progressive growth. You started as a server, then you became a team lead, and so on. Or you started at a travel agency and then you switched to a cruise line call center because you felt that’s what you learned in the travel agency best. And that’s what you wanna do. That’s fine. So our work requirement here is an initial point that differentiates us and our typical student graduates with about 3000 hours. Which if you’re, if you’re not sure, that’s a year and a half of full-time equivalency. So I know you’ve dealt with difficult South Florida guests or our online students. Wherever you’re living, you’ve dealt with guests there and you wanna still be in this business and you love it. So that’s a first hurdle. The second thing about experiential learning is and I drive my faculty members a little nuts, so with this, but I am, I have a requirement that everything we do resonates with finding your passion, finding your job, and getting your job getting your career off the ground, right? So this week we have a club management class that’s going to Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club. It’s a reclass requirement. You have to interview with the eight other clubs that are there just to practice your interview skills. And you talk to the club people, what do you like about your job? What do you hate about your job? What is fascinating? How much money can I make? What’s your day to day? And you get out of the building and you go play and you have an experience, a lunch, a tour at a world class yacht club. And you say, okay, that’s for me. That’s maybe not, maybe yes. Then we have Harris Casino, same thing full night of tour, meet and greet with the president, meet the VP of finance, tour the casino floor. What does a slot technician do? What does a player’s club attendant do? Or an agent, what does a casino host do? And so we do clubs, we do hotels. We have Sonesta day coming up in September. We have a day in the life co-president this year and next of the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International. We have a South Florida chapter. We created what’s called A Day in the Life. They go to the north to Palm Beach. Last year they went to the south to the Carion Miami Beach Wellness Resort. And they spend a day in the life. What does it mean you’re a revenue manager? What does it mean you’re a catering sales manager? What does it mean a BEO, banquet event order? So part of our uniqueness is these opportunities, and I can’t tell you, we invite all students, whether you’re enrolled in that particular class section or not. The feedback from students about finding their calling is incredible. And I attribute this to the fact that I have a sociology, broad thinking as my inherent degree at my undergrad. And I did my master’s in recreation, parks and tourism. So I look at tourism as a big potential business. So you could be a tour operator, you could work for an airline. I have a student right now, he’s a captain of his own fishing boat. Well, he’s in the process of buying his fishing boat. He’s learning from me as a marketing major and a hospitality minor, how to start networking with the hoteliers to do his tours for the guests. And so I just approach everything as this big great industry that we are. I’m sorry, I’m so passionate. I go way off of your question, but that’s what we do different. We get you out, you experience and you succeed. And if you come to me six months in and you’re like, Ricci, you know what, I’m fine going back to school to be a veterinarian. I’m like, great. Then take the guest service class where you’re gonna treat your clients and your people and your patients better human and feline and canine because you need those skills. But now, yeah, go to vet school. I’ll leave you with this one on this. I had a guy who took intro to hospitality with me. He was a biology major here. He was dead set on going to the University of Florida for pharmacy school. I said, what are you doing in a hospitality class? And he said, you know, taking his elective, I’m in love with this. I said, you know what, take my guest service class and take anything else related to your patient client service area. And he’s now been a district manager with CVS in Targets for a decade as a pharmacist with his pharmacy doctorate. And he still uses his people skills every day so that his pharmacy collection outperforms the others in his district. And that’s hospitality.
Ryan Embree:
That is the foundation of a hospitality DNA. We’ve heard that term a lot when hospitality is in your DNA. It’s a perfect transition into talking about FAU and its alumni and a network because when you prepare students like that, you give them those experiences and they’re successful, you can then use their stories to prospective students, right? And share their success. You have a space dedicated on your website talking about and spotlighting and showcasing those alumni and stories that you just mentioned. Talk about the importance of seeing these stories staying connected to your alumni so that they come back and, you know, everyone loves their alma mater, right? You know, you could also come back and if you can hire from the school that you graduated, how great does that feel? You know, that’s a win-win for everyone. So talk about that and the impact that it has on prospective students for your program.
Dr. Peter Ricci :
Sure. So if you google FAU alumni hospitality, they’ll pop up for you. My challenge is finding them and getting them to send me a little description of what they did in college and a photo. And then if we have a photo, I like to find them on LinkedIn or ways I can like every couple years and update their photo and update the jobs so they can tell like a, a story that the students in seats right now can resonate with. So I might have 20 or 30 on that site. I’ve probably had 10,000 graduates. So that’s the difficulty is in getting them back. And it’s funny that you say, you know, everybody loves their alma mater. I am not a UF fan anymore. UF was the end all be all for me. I was on orientation, I worked in admissions part-time, I was the student, rah rah, everything. They’ve morphed into something I wouldn’t wanna attend. Now as a student, I would wanna come to FAU and I enjoyed UCF, but I think FAU has something super special and different that I would’ve liked as a current day student in, in the way that we teach. We were way ahead of the curve and having excellence and rigor, but matched to your style, hybrid online, et cetera. There was a bad perception for many years that online was less rigorous, that it was low quality. We have a place here called the Center for Online and Continuing Education that trains all of the faculty and bar none. I am just as connected with my online MBA students as I am with my face-to-face just as warm and fuzzy with my online undergrads as I am with my face-to-face. It just takes a different way to communicate. That’s one of the good artifacts of covid is that we’re all more adept at dealing with virtual things without making them in inhumane. You know what I mean? Or whatever the term is. It’s just we’re better at it now.
Dr. Peter Ricci :
Well, it gives access and opportunities to people, you know, to attend FAU that maybe didn’t think about it before or other universities. So you’re right. And you see that in the success. I saw a post recently of FAU record breaking applications, enrollment for fall 2024 over 46,000 applications, which is the highest in university history. So again, you know, speaks directly to what you’re talking about today. You know, with so many students looking to attend the college, what advice would you have for those first time enrollees into the program?
Dr. Peter Ricci :
I would say another benefit that we have kind of morphed into creating here is we have the degree that will match what your goal is. So our more rigorous, arduous, time consuming degree is the Bachelor of Business Administration and the BBA. Then we have a Bachelor of Arts and general business, which is slightly more flexible. And then we have a Bachelor of general studies, which permits you to take classes at the junior senior level in quantity in your area of interest. So I have students who will come to me and say, I think I want to do communications intertwined with hospitality. So I’ll have them do a bachelor of general studies. They’ll do 15 hours in communications, 15 hours in hospitality. They’re much better prepared than any other degree would’ve got them. They just have to showcase that when they go out to the world for employers. So our variety is very good. You know, we are bucking the national trend. I have a wooden desk, so I’ll knock on wood, but we are suddenly the very popular place to come. And it’s not only in Florida. I teach the pre-business first year interest group students. And in my class of 25, there are always 8 to 12 that are from other countries, other states. And that was not the FAU that I grew up with. It’s the FAU of now. So when you come, if you come get engaged, get involved, it’s okay to be a fully online student, but set up one-on-one time with me. So I know where you work. I know how I can help you with our job list. I maintain a tremendous job email list. So most of our students find jobs within their first week of wanting to look but be engaged. Whether it’s student activities on campus. We’re popular because we are the second closest university in America to the beach. I don’t know if you knew that little fact.
Ryan Embree:
I knew you could see the ocean from the stadium. I do know that you have to go up high enough.
Dr. Peter Ricci :
We’re very close and outside of Pepperdine, that’s a blessing for us too because we have an amazing marine biology program. So there’s a multitude of reasons to study at FAU. One of the things that shocked me when I came here that I did not know is we’re one of the largest business schools in America. We have over 8,200 students in the college of business alone, which puts us in probably in the top 10 or 15. So we have the resources of this local community that has vibrant entrepreneurs and successful people in it. There are many articles that say Palm Beach is slowly becoming the wealth district of the South with a lot of companies opening second offices here from Manhattan. There’s just a lot going on here. And students feel that. They see that. You know, Ryan, to your point about flexibility and all, I have some bartenders that probably make two or three grand a week and if they wanna study online, so be it. And I don’t care if it takes ’em six years to graduate. I probably shouldn’t say that ’cause we prefer four year graduation rates. But why would I mess with your passion and what you love and your income and your happiness if you find that hospitality is your calling, just get your degree over time or do your certificate or whatever floats your boat. But we have the infrastructure in the university to tackle those varied desires. If you want to come here four years straight outta high school, live in the residence hall, you can do that too. And there’s plenty of stuff to do.
Ryan Embree:
Well, let’s flip the script because over a decade ago here I am about to go into the hospitality workforce out of UCF Rosen, fresh off of a recession around that time. Students here, they’re going into a workforce right now that is, frankly, it’s understaffed. We’re battling staffing shortages. We’ve talked to the AHLA on this podcast about how we can try to mitigate these trends and help our industry right now with staffing, you’re helping produce, you know, that workforce. What advice are you giving to that student that is about to walk across the auditorium and get their diploma and go into the workforce today?
Dr. Peter Ricci :
I’m on a panel this Thursday night for the South Florida Hospitality Human Resources Association, and they floated a statistic that I’m trying to verify. But it says there are more vacant positions right now across the globe in hospitality than there are workers. So it’s a bonanza if you’re a student, the wages are higher than they ever have been at the starting point, which is one of the positive outcomes of Covid. So no more, can you tell me that we don’t pay well, we pay well and we’ve always been an industry that once you move along the pathway to your liking a little bit, you can earn great salaries. I have several general managers slash chief operating officers within 10 miles of this campus who make over $500,000 a year. So are they toward the higher end of our scale? Yes. But that’s what we have in South Florida. So a lot of our students will fall in love with this community, see the opportunity, and then wanna stay in Miami Beach or want to go to the Keys or move to Jupiter. But in this region, but in general, there are more opportunities than ever before. Right before I joined your podcast, I was talking to the recruiter from a hotel collection and from airlines to the Brightline, high speed rail, to Amtrak, to Spirit Airlines. Everybody is looking for hires. So the opportunities are more than they have ever been. And I don’t expect this to change for the next three to seven years. It’s just the way the workforce is evolving and moving. What I will caution the students on is to find what they like and make sure they’re in the right culture. Because there are plenty of cultures out there that will match you and that will make you happy. If you want fully remote, find a company that prides fully remote. If you want hybrid, find the ones that has hybrid. Everybody’s doing something to attract, and you are more in the driver’s seat than when Ryan graduated at the end of a recession. So where you have a few choices. So, take that to your advantage. I mean, because it’s not gonna last forever. Every economy, every business model, every industry is cyclical and hospitality is no different. So this is the time for your ride.
Ryan Embree:
Do research too, right? Social media, what I tell actually hoteliers is, is one of the places that this younger workforce is gonna look at what a glimpse of a day in life might be is looking at reviews, right? Looking at guest feedback and saying, okay, am I gonna have people yelling at me all day with one star reviews? Or am I gonna have people praising me saying, this is an awesome environment, I had a great experience here. So reviews, social media, these are all places that, and this is speaking to the hoteliers as well. That is where students are looking. That’s where they do their research. We just put out a white paper on how social is the new search. People are looking for their information now using TikTok or Instagram and YouTube more than they are on search engines like Google. Make sure you’re insulated there as well and putting the best version of yourself out there because I think you’re right, Dr. Ricci. I mean it’s all about culture right now and finding fits and alignment there. So I wanna get your take on this because you’re an industry expert. Usually I say both sides of the front desk, but you’ve been on both sides of the front desk and the school desk as well. So as an industry expert, we’ve got a lot of these trends on the rise, I’m sure you’re teaching within your curriculum, sustainability within hospitality that is just booming right now. AI and technology, obviously that’s, that’s the hot trend. Guest personalization, experiential travel. How do you see the, the industry looking five years from now?
Dr. Peter Ricci :
It’s funny you bring those up. We update our certificate content every two years to be super relevant. And in the current run we have females in leadership, ai, sustainability, and the experience. I mean, it’s there. So, another, I guess not so shy plug for the program is we update the curriculum so frequently, many programs have stodgy curriculum committees and bureaucracies that they can’t do that. So we update immediately. So the next five years will focus on labor, focus on work life balance, or flexible work arrangements that’s not going away. Smart uses of ai, not just using artificial intelligence because it’s available and it’s there, but incorporating in ways that match what the guests want in your organization. And American Airlines guest is gonna be very different from a Choice Hotel’s guest who’s gonna be very different from a luxury resort in Macau. I mean, it’s just using the AI in the proper ways and also refining our talent acquisition methods and system to have a broader reach. We need people who are without GEDs, with GEDs, with high school degrees, with bachelor’s without bachelor’s. We need everybody. So if you have an innate desire to serve and you find that our industry matches your personality, then fall into the multiple ways of training and development that match you. So whether it’s American Hotel Lodging Education Institute, whether it’s National Restaurant Association, whether it’s Club managers Association, there’s training everywhere. So, you know, just fall in love first and then go with the training that matches and you’ll evolve. You know, like I was never into data analytics as much as I kind of am now to a little extent. I’ve always been an HR guy. So I really look at human resource trends and building cultures because rather than my owners slapping my wrist for spending too much, I would rather overspend on building a culture and make the owner wealthy. Because we have the kick ass service level. You know what I mean? Right. So I’d rather go that route than efficiencies and cost cutting. But I do need the AI and the algorithms and everything to monitor my cost successfully and to stay within parameters. So, you know, technology is the next five years, it’s the next 500 years. Um, using it correctly is where I find some recent graduates and students having a hard time. They have a difficult time telling the story from the data. So it’s analyzing the data very, very well. Granular, the best way possible, but then telling the story and what does it mean for me to change on that side of the desk or change on this side of the desk. That’s where you have to do it. You know, and I learned, like you said, I’m on both sides of the desk here. Um, I learned from the students, what do they need? What do they want from the faculty on the other side? What’s fair rigor? What should we be teaching? What is the best tool to use to teach quantitative analysis? Is it Power bi, is it Tableau? Is it Excel? Is it all of ’em? You know, so those discussions are never ending, always evolving. And they should be because our industry’s always evolving.
Ryan Embree:
Well, you’re absolutely right. And just like you’re talking to the next generation of hoteliers, you’re also talking to the next generation of travelers, right? So it’s like, how are they doing research for their own trips? What are they looking at? What do they wanna do? Is it solo travel? Right? Experiential travel. How are they documenting their travel? You know, Instagram, social media is a big part of that. But it’s funny, you talk about the talent acquisition. I think you’re absolutely right. The way we get outta the staffing shortages, you know, to share stories, one success stories, but also open the lens a little bit wider. We have another series on this podcast called Hospitality Trailblazers. You’d be surprised how many of these CEOs, COOs of successful hotel management companies come from the front line. So my joke is always you want to talk to the next great CEO of a hotel management company. Go talk to your bellman right now. Maybe in 20 years they might be there. But I think you’re absolutely right. Dr. Ricci, it was absolute pleasure speaking with you today and talking about FAU Hospitality Tourism Program. Very educational. So thank you for taking the time with me on the Suite Spot. Thank you all for listening to the Suite Spot, we’ll talk to you next time. To join our loyalty program, be sure to subscribe and give us a five star rating on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.
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